


and at last i see the light.

by beautifulbane



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: (from haggar to keith), (it's none of the paladins), Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Tangled, Angst, Emotional Manipulation, F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, Gender-Neutral Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Minor Character Death, Mutual Pining, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-15
Updated: 2017-07-15
Packaged: 2018-12-02 09:52:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 30,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11506944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beautifulbane/pseuds/beautifulbane
Summary: "You said you've been to the castle?" Keith asked.Lance cleared his throat. "Um. Yeah. Why?"He watched as Keith's expression changed from one of intimidation to open curiosity. "Do you know anything about the floating lights?""Floating lights?" Lance mused, and then shook his head. "You're gonna have to be more specific than that, babe."(Or, the tangled AU where Keith has been trapped in a tower for eighteen years of his life, and Lance is the unsuspecting thief who sets him free.)





	and at last i see the light.

**Author's Note:**

> hiii okay so i've just realized that the tags on this fic make it seem super dark lol but i don't think it is? kinda? not really? it's based off of a disney movie and there's a happy ending, so!
> 
> i absolutely fell in love with thekoreanpineapple's fanart of rapunzel keith and flynn/eugene lance on tumblr and i knew i had to write the fic. if you haven't checked her drawings out on tumblr yet, then i strongly recommend you do!
> 
> also i wanted to give a little apology because i kind of...made rolo and nyma villains. i still love their characters on the show so please don't hate me!!
> 
> oh and one more thing: i know that in the movie, rapunzel's eyes don't change color, but i thought it would be really cool if keith's could, sort of like a kitsune! (think kira from teen wolf if you watch that show)
> 
> i hope you enjoy, this fic was really fun to write so hopefully it's just as fun to read!

Everyone knew the tragedy of the baby prince.

It was common knowledge around the kingdom, a tale that mothers would tell their children as they held them close, thankful that what had happened to the prince wouldn't ever happen to their own child.

Not even a full month after the prince was born, a war tore through the kingdom and the lands surrounding it. Knowing the war-ravaged kingdom was no place to raise a baby, the King and Queen had trusted their most loyal knight, Lord Antok, to take the baby far away and raise him somewhere that was safely hidden.

No one saw the knight or the prince while the war lasted. It was assumed that the King and Queen's plan had worked, that the prince had been safely hidden away. When the war ended, three years after the prince's departure, the entire kingdom anxiously anticipated his return.

But that wasn't what they had received. It wasn't even close. Instead, Lord Antok's body had been found on the castle's grounds, dead.

The entire kingdom had been devastated, even more so than they had been from the war. The King and Queen ordered every one of their guards to look for a three year old child, with black hair and dark eyes.

For the first year, everyone held out hope that the prince would be found. No one wanted to believe that a three year old child had been killed. The King and Queen even started throwing the Festival of Lights, where hundreds of lanterns were lit into the sky in the hopes that their son would see them and return to the castle.

Every year the festival was thrown on the prince's birthday, and every year the prince did not return.

Hope started to be lost. The King and Queen, who had always been known for their outgoing, hands-on nature, rarely left the castle. When they had to make appearances, their faces seemed aged and lacking all signs of happiness. It was said that no one had seen them smile since the loss of their son.

The Queen passed away on the twelfth anniversary of the festival, and the King passed away a year later. As awful as it sounded, no one had been too surprised. It had seemed to outsiders that the two hadn't been truly living since Lord Antok's body had been found outside of the castle.

Officially, the story was that they had both died from sickness. Unofficially, everyone believed they had died from their broken hearts.

Nonetheless, there was still some hope to be found. The King and Queen's eldest (only, said people who believed the baby prince had died) son, Shiro, stepped up to take the throne with his wife, Allura. Although he was a fairly young king, at only twenty-three, he proved to be a strong and merciful one. The people of the kingdom quickly fell in love with him, as they did with the beautiful Allura.

Shiro even continued to throw the Festival of Lights for his little brother, announcing that he would until they found him or until the day Shiro himself died.

So the story left off on a hopeful, somewhat happy note, but that wasn't all there was to it. And that certainly wasn't the end.

What most people didn't know was that the King and Queen's plan _had_ been successful for the first three years. Lord Antok had raised the baby, who he named Keith, and watched him grow into a happy, healthy toddler. He adored him, and it was because of this adoration that he worried about the child's safety.

He knew that the war had ended and he would be returning Keith soon, but he wanted to take a few precautions before doing so. It was because of this that he hired a witch, Haggar, to cast protections on the child to prevent anything bad from ever happening to him.

"All I'm asking are a few safety charms," Antok said, eyeing the witch suspiciously, "This child means the world to me. I can't have anything happen to him."

Haggar cracked her knuckles. "And nothing will, once I'm done with him. I can assure you that."

Antok took one last look at Keith, who smiled toothily up at him from his spot on the couch, and then nodded.

"Go ahead."

Haggar eyed the child interestedly as her hands began to glow a hot pink with magic.

"I can sense a magic already in this child," she mused, "Is that possible?"

"I know the Queen fell ill while in labor with him. I think they found some kind of special flower for her, but I wouldn't be able to tell you what it was called," Antok told her.

"No need," Haggar said, "I know exactly what it is."

And then she was wrapping Keith up in her magic, completely enveloping him in it. Antok thought that everything was fine, up until he saw the child's curly black hair begin to grow to an impossible amount.

"What are you doing?" Antok yelled. "If you're using dark magic on him I'll—"

"Dark magic is so strong of a term," Haggar said, looking at Keith as if he were the most valuable metal she'd ever laid her eyes on, "I've just found my key to immortality."

"What are you talk—"

Haggar pulled her magic away from Keith in favor of lashing out at Antok, mustering all of her strength behind him. Antok hadn't been expecting it, so he fell easily to the floor, his breath coming out in heaved gasps.

"Don't," he said as Haggar walked over to him. "Don't hurt him. Whatever you do, don't..."

"Oh, I won't. I'm going to make sure that no one ever hurts him," Haggar assured, and then she was dealing the final, fatal blow.

Antok's eyes immediately closed. Haggar used her magic to transport him to outside of the castle, knowing what his death would mean to the people of the kingdom.

They would all think the prince had been killed as well, which would insure that Haggar could keep him all to herself.

She looked over at the child. His bottom lip was wobbling and his eyes were filled with unshed tears.

"There, there," Haggar said, taking a seat next to him on the couch. She ran a hand through the boy's hair, her eyes shining greedily. "You and I are going to be together for a long, long time."

 

* * *

 

Haggar didn't test out Keith's hair until he was six. She sat him down, brushed a comb through his ever growing hair, and told him to sing for her.

"Flower burn and glow, let your power shine. Make the clock reverse, bring back what once was mine. Heal what has been hurt. Change the Fates' design. Save what has been lost. Bring back what once was mine, what once was mine," Haggar hummed, "Now sing it with me, please."

Haggar continued to brush through Keith's hair as the little boy sang along with her, his voice soft and somewhat shy. When he sang of letting his power shine, his hair burst into bright orange and red flames.

Haggar gasped. She hadn't been expecting that. Had the flames been a result of the light magic of the flower mixing in with her own dark magic?

The flames were...beautiful, and they weren't lighting anything on fire.

"Mother?" Keith asked, looking back at her with wide, scared.

"It's alright, pet," Haggar told him as she felt the flower work its magic, immediately feeling ages younger. "In fact, it's more than alright. It's _amazing_."

Keith offered a small smile, still looking a bit unsure.

"You see now why you can't ever leave this tower?" Haggar asked him earnestly. "You have a gift, Keith, a gift that people will try and take away from you. We can't ever have that happen. You understand?"

"Yes, Mother. I understand," he parroted back obediently.

Haggar patted his cheek. "That's my boy," she murmured. Before she could leave the tower, she caught a glimpse of herself in the full body length mirror she had gotten for Keith.

Her white hair had turned back to black.

 

* * *

 

_*12 years later*_

 

"I am _not_ bored," Keith huffed out.

Sure, being locked up in a tower for eighteen years could get a _little_ tedious, but Keith had ways of keeping busy. Mother supplied him with plenty of books to read, as well as journals to write in and paint and brushes to draw with. The walls of the tower were covered in Keith's drawings, usually of things he had read about in his books. One wall depicted an open green meadow with pink flowers freshly in bloom, and another had a blue ocean with sand and sea creatures.

He had just found out about the planets, and was looking forward more than anything to drawing them.

But with reading about the planets, he had also read about the stars, and...well.

Keith undid the curtains covering his conspiracy board, looking at the section titled "Floating Lights". He got out his red paintbrush and climbed up the ladder to his board so he could cross out the word 'stars'.

The lights _couldn't_ be stars. Stars, he had read, came out every night. They didn't just appear randomly once a year and then disappear again.

But if they weren't stars, then what were they?

 _I know you want to see them. You should ask_ , Red said.

Keith jumped, almost spilling his paint all over himself.

"Geez, Red, don't creep up on me like that," Keith breathed, but he couldn't deny the way his heart had sped up at just the thought of actually being able to see the lights in person.

"I don't even see the point in asking anymore," Keith told Red, his voice dripping with discouragement, "She _always_ says no, and then she gets upset with me, and I...I don't want to upset her."

_You're going to be eighteen tomorrow, practically an adult. That has to mean something._

Keith shrugged. "I guess. I was thinking of just asking for my favorite paint from those shells she got me one time."

Red leveled him with an unimpressed stare. Keith stared back at her, both of them equally stubborn, before letting out a defeated sigh.

"Okay, _fine_ , I'll ask. But if she yells at me, which I'm sure she probably will, I'm going to tell her it was _your_ idea."

Red, who had been standing on Keith's black boot, changed her color to black in a "I don't know what you mean, I'm not even here" gesture. Keith snorted, bending down to place the chameleon on his shoulder instead.

"Very funny," he told her affectionately.

"Keith, darling! Let down your hair!"

Keith shared a look with Red before hurrying back down the ladder and over to his open window. He looked down to see Mother waiting for him, tapping her foot impatiently.

"Sorry, it'll be right down," he rushed out. He latched his hair onto the hook he always used to pull her up and then began to lift her up once she had grabbed onto his hair. When she was all of the way up, Keith unlatched his hair, offering her an anxious smile.

"Good morning, Mother," he greeted.

"Good morning, dear," she told him, holding out her wicker to him. "I brought you your _favorite_ soup."

"Oh, thank you," he told her as he took the basket from her. He walked over to the kitchen table and set it down, his back facing his mother. "Is that the only reason you came?"

He heard a huff from behind him, but he didn't turn around. He wasn't sure if he would be able to ask for what he wanted if he was facing her.

"I must say, I expected a little bit more gratitude than that," Mother said.

Okay, Keith _had_ to look at her now. He didn't want her to be disappointed in his lack of manners.

"I'm sorry," he apologized immediately, "I'm very grateful for the soup. In fact, I'll have it today for lunch. But I was just...I was wondering if you remembered that it's my birthday tomorrow."

Mother laughed lightly at his words. "No, no," she said, "I _specifically_ remember you having one last year."

Keith twirled a strand of hair between his fingers. He laughed too, but it was tense. "That's the thing about birthdays, they're _kind of_ an annual thing." He then turned away from her again, busying himself by getting out bowls and napkins and silverware. "And, well, I was thinking about what I wanted for it."

Mother hummed. "And what's that, dear?"

Keith looked over at Red, who was sitting on the table and had camouflaged herself as brown. Still, he could see the little "go ahead" gesture she gave him with her hand.

"I want you to take me to the castle so I can see the floating lights," Keith said with a flourish, letting out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.

He'd done it. He'd asked.

"Oh, you mean the stars," Mother said, "I'm sure if you look out your window you'll be able to see them well enough."

Keith bit down on his bottom lip. "See, that's the thing," he started, "I did some reading on stars, and they're always in the sky. The floating lights aren't constant like that. They only happen on my birthday. And I can't...I can't help but feel like they're meant for me."

It was quiet for a couple minutes. Keith could feel his heart racing in his chest and his palms sweating, so he quickly stuffed them in his pants pocket.

Mother remained uncharacteristically silent, until she finally spoke, her voice cool as she said, "What a foolish thing to think."

Keith spun around, his mouth dropping at the words. He tried to speak, but Mother cut him off before he could.

"You really think those lights could be for you?" She asked, her voice beginning to raise. "I'm sure there are _dozens_  of other people in the kingdom who share your birthday. Why would they _possibly_ be for someone like you?"

Keith's bottom lip trembled, and he tried to blink away tears, but he could feel one slip down his cheek.

Mother heaved out a deep sigh. "I don't want to be the bad guy here, Keith, but you give me no other choice. These little...naïve fantasies of yours tell me that you're not ready to leave this tower, nor will you ever be."

"But...but if I was with you," Keith pleaded, his voice wrecked from trying to hold back his onslaught of tears.

"It wouldn't matter," Mother responded, "I'm sure you'd find some kind of mess to get yourself into." She then walked over to him, lifting his chin up with her hand so he would look her in the eye. "Let's face it, pet, you're not very smart, and on top of that, you're much too trusting. You'd trust the first person who said something nice to you, and then your hair would be gone forever."

Keith's shoulders slumped and as soon as Mother let go of him, his eyes found their way to the floor. He wanted to say that that wasn't true, he wouldn't just trust anyone, but how could he know that? If Mother, who was the only person who knew him in this world, thought that that was what would happen, then who was Keith to argue?

"I'd suggest you ask for something else, darling," Mother suggested lightly, as if she hadn't just ruined all of Keith's hopes and dreams.

"Um," Keith said, trying to compose himself enough to answer, "I was thinking maybe you could get me those shells that I can make paint out of it."

Mother gave him an exasperated look. "There and back will take me _at least_ a week's journey, Keith."

"You don't have," Keith said, shaking his head, "It was just a suggestion—"

"No, I will," Mother said, and Keith looked up at her in surprise, "But I'm going to need you to do me a favor first, okay?"

Keith wasn't too surprised to find that she meant combing through his hair as he sang for her. While she brushed, Keith caught his reflection in the mirror, the red-orange flames illuminating his face.

Not for the first time, he wondered what it meant, and _why_ his hair lit up in flames whenever he sang that particular song. He hadn't ever read about anything like it. Mother had told him once that he'd been born with the ability, but he had always wondered if maybe that wasn't true: if there was more to the story.

Still, Keith didn't dare to ask. He knew his hair was a touchy subject for Mother.

When she prepared to leave, Keith wrapped her up in a hug, surprised to feel that he _would_ miss her. Even if they argued, she was the only person he had ever known and loved, and telling her goodbye always hurt.

"You be good, my pet," she told him, brushing her fingers against his cheek, "I'll be back before you know it."

Keith nodded.

"I love you," she said.

"I love you more," Keith responded with a shaky smile.

Mother shook her head, as she always did. "I love you _most_ ," she assured, and then she was gone, climbing back down Keith's hair.

Keith waved to her once she was on the ground and pulled his hair back up, closing his window. He slouched on the ground, putting his head in his hands as fresh tears came to his eyes. It seemed that he wouldn't ever be leaving this tower, nor would he ever be seeing the floating lights.

He felt a light pressure on his leg and pulled his hands away from his eyes, wiping a bit at the tear stains.

It was Red, who had gone back to her original color. The red color made her look fiery and angry.

"You don't...you don't think I'm dim, do you, Red?" Keith asked hesitantly.

Red looked insulted at just the question. _Of course you're not dumb. You're the smartest person I know._

Keith snorted. "I'm the _only_ person you know."

_That was a very smart point to make._

Keith full on laughed now, actually feeling somewhat happy for the first time since his Mother had come up to the tower.

"Thank you, Red," he told her, hoping she understood that he didn't just mean for the laugh, but for _everything_ she did for him.

Based on the smile she gave him, he had a feeling she did.

 

* * *

 

Lance would like to live in a castle one day.

In fact, it had always been somewhat of a dream of his. He imagined that it was never quiet in a castle, what with all the people who lived in it, and that was what Lance liked: loudness. Growing up in a foster home with multiple children (whom he had grown to think of as his siblings), it had never been quiet, so that was what he had gotten used to.

Too much quiet actually freaked him out a bit.

"I could get used to a view like this," Lance said from his spot on the roof of the castle. He was currently in the middle of a heist with his two assistants, Rolo and Nyma.

(Okay, so, they probably didn't think of themselves as Lance's assistants, but they _were_. Lance was clearly the ringleader of the group.)

"If you don't hurry up and get the crown, then you'll never have the chance to," Rolo huffed out.

Lance glared at him, about to give him a piece of his mind when he felt two small hands on his chest, calming him down. He looked to see Nyma standing in front of him, her lips quirked into a small smile.

"You got this, baby," she told him, and then she was locking their lips together in a brief but passionate kiss.

Lord, _what a woman_ , Lance thought to himself before he was wrapping the rope around his middle. Rolo and Nyma both held onto the rope as they slowly but surely lowered him down into the highly secured crown room.

Luckily, all of the guards were facing the entrance away from the actual crown. As soon as his hands grabbed onto the crown, the guard closest to him sneezed.

Lance gestured for Rolo and Nyma to pull him up, and then he smirked, unable to help himself.

"Gesundheit," he told the guard.

"Thanks," the guard responded, not even thinking about it. "Wait a minute!"

But Lance was already all the way pulled up by Rolo and Nyma.

"Great going, you alerted them that the crown had been stolen!" Rolo exclaimed as the three of them hurriedly made their way down the castle.

Lance stuffed the crown in his satchel. "I'm _sure_ they would have noticed anyway that their precious crown had been stolen."

They continued to run until they had left the kingdom altogether, entering the forest right outside of it. Luckily they couldn't see any of the guards yet, so they had quite a head's start on them, but they all knew the guards would catch up to them eventually if they didn't keep going: especially considering they were on horseback.

"I think we might've lost them," Lance huffed out once they were deep enough into the forest. He leaned against a tree, trying to catch his breath, when something white caught his eye. He looked to see that there were two wanted posters, one of Lance, and one of Rolo and Nyma together.

" _Shit_ ," he cursed, "This is bad, this is really bad..."

Rolo squinted at him. He had his hands on his knees, also trying to catch his breath. "What? You never been on a wanted poster before?"

"No, of course I have, but look at my _nose_. They can never get it right!" Lance pointed to the portrait of himself, where his nose was taking up half of his face.

"Does it really matter?" Rolo asked lowly.

"Well that's easy for you to say. You both look _amazing_." Lance winked over at Nyma. "Especially you, babe."

Nyma giggled at him, as she always did when he flirted with her.

The sound of hooves hitting the ground filled Lance's ears and the three of them quickly spun around, looking up to see that dozens of castle guards were on the cliff above them, looking right at them.

"Okay, so we didn't lose them," Lance said, only sort of pointing out the obvious, and then they were running again.

It seemed that they were going to be able to outrun them: until they were abruptly stopped by a dead end, one that was way too steep for them to try and climb.

"What are we gonna do?" Nyma asked. "If we stay here, they catch us. If we go back, they also catch us. We're screwed either way."

Lance looked up at the cliff, trying to assess the situation.

"Rolo, if you lift Nyma up, I can climb up the both of you and make it to the top. Then I can give you both a boost," Lance suggested.

"Fine," Rolo agreed, "But give me the satchel first."

Lance gave him an indignant look. "Seriously?!"

"Lance, we don't have much time," Nyma said, fluttering her eyelashes. "Maybe just do what he says?"

Lance let out a sigh. He handed over the satchel to Rolo as Nyma climbed onto her brother's shoulders. Lance climbed up the both of them and then hoisted himself to the top of the cliff, letting out a breath of relief that his idea had worked.

"Lance," Nyma said, offering her brightest smile, "Help me up?"

"Yeah, of course," Lance said, and without a second thought, he held his hand out to her. He lifted her up easily, and then the two of them lifted Rolo up, as well.

They backed away from the cliff enough that the guards couldn't see them, and Lance heard a muffled "Shit!" and "Where'd they go?" which made him snort behind his hand.

He then held his hand out to Rolo. "I'll take my satchel back now."

Rolo shared a look with Nyma, and then he was taking Lance's arm in his hand and slamming him to the ground. Lance gasped at the impact, his breath knocking out of his lungs, but not before he was swinging his legs into Rolo's, knocking him right down with him.

"What the _fuck_?" Lance cursed as Rolo crawled his way over to him, his hands balled up into fists. He attempted a punch to Lance's face but Lance easily dodged it, catching Rolo's wrist in his hands and flipping him over. He moved so that he was the one on top of Rolo, straddling his waist with his legs so he couldn't get away.

"You want to do some explaining?" Lance hissed.

Rolo glared at him, pointedly not speaking. Lance shrugged. Alright, if that was how he wanted it to be. He slammed his fist into Rolo's face, hearing a girlish scream from somewhere behind him.

Oh, right. Nyma. Lance had forgotten about her. He landed another punch to Rolo's face for good measure and then took his satchel back, standing up from his spot on the ground. He was pleased to see that Rolo was unconscious.

"Laaaance," Nyma cooed, slowly walking over to him. "You want to give me that satchel?"

Lance frowned. Great, so apparently his girlfriend was also in on the whole 'betray Lance' plan. Ex-girlfriend?

"Why don't you tell me what's going on, and then maybe I'll think about it?"

"Rolo and I were going to take the satchel from you and split the money from the crown two ways instead of three," Nyma said with a shrug, "But it doesn't have to be that way. It can be just you and me, Lance."

Lance scoffed. _As if_ he was going to believe that. He knew Nyma and how much she cared about her brother. No way would she ever betray him, especially not for Lance.

"It wasn't ever going to be you and me, Nyma," he told her, and then he was running, as fast as he could.

"Lance!" He heard Nyma yell, and then she was running after him.

"You know, you were right!" She continued, her voice heaving out from running. "It wasn't ever going to be me and you, because I can't fucking stand you. Your stupid puns, your pick up lines, they're _awful_!"

Lance clenched his jaw. Nyma was just trying to get to him, he _knew_ that. But the words still stung. Here he had thought that Nyma had really cared about him in the way he had grown to care about her, but...but now he knew the truth. Her and her brother had been using him for nothing but his thieving abilities this entire time.

He kept running, thankfully keeping a safe distance between himself and Nyma, until the ground just...stopped. This time, there wasn't a cliff for him to climb up, because this one fell down, and down, and down...

He looked behind him and saw that Nyma had just seen the cliff as well, her eyes going wide and her mouth dropping delicately open.

At that moment, Lance made a split second decision. He turned around so he was facing the cliff and opened the satchel, stuffing the crown under his shirt.

"Looks like you don't have much of a choice, baby," Nyma called sweetly, "Either you give me the satchel, or I push you off a cliff. Seems like a pretty easy decision to me, don't you think?"

Lance looked over his shoulder, purposely not facing her so she couldn't see the crown under his shirt. He then threw the satchel to her, which she quickly scooped up, throwing it over her shoulder without so much as a spare glance. Lance could see Rolo advancing from behind her.

"You're going to spare my life, right?" Lance asked. "I gave you the satchel, that's what you promised."

Nyma shared a look with her brother, seeing his black eye and bruised lip, and then she was turning back to face Lance.

"Hasta la later, Lance," she growled, repeating his own catchphrase back to him, and then she was pushing him off of the cliff without a second thought.

Lance fell face first, though he was actually fortunate to do so, because he was able to latch onto a weak branch hanging from the cliff. He almost rolled his eyes at how predictable Nyma was. _Of course_ she had broken her promise and pushed him off of a _fucking cliff_.

"You get the satchel, sis?" He heard Rolo ask.

"Sure did," said Nyma, and then there was a high-pitched screech. " _Lance_!"

Lance removed the crown from under his shirt, showing it to the two siblings. "What? You looking for this?" He asked, trying not to convey how terrified he actually was.

The fall from the cliff was...so long. Lance couldn't even see anything except misty nothingness, which, you know, wasn't completely terrifying or anything.

"Give it to me," Nyma hissed, taking a cautious step onto the branch. However, she clearly overestimated the strength of it, because as soon as her foot met the branch, it was cracking.

The next couple events happened in the blink of an eye. Rolo was grabbing Nyma off of the branch and then Lance was falling, grasping onto both the branch and the crown for dear life. He heard Nyma screaming, "No!", but it faded out the further Lance fell.

He squeezed his eyes closed, unable to watch himself fall to his own death. At least he had the crown, he thought to himself, and Rolo and Nyma would be left with dust. That was...a good final thought to have.

When the branch hit the ground, it was enough crack it in half, and to leave Lance seriously dazed. He continued to hold onto the branch as he tried to catch his breath. He was...alive?

Lance was thoroughly shocked.

He then quickly looked over at the crown, grinning when he saw that it was unscratched and all in one piece.

"Take that, assholes!" Lance yelled at the sky, even though he knew Nyma and Rolo couldn't possibly hear him.

He knew that he should get up, just in case the two of them or some guards managed to find him, but...Lance was seriously tired. Maybe if he could sleep for just a second...

The thought was interrupted by a loud whinny, undoubtedly from one of the guard's horses. Okay, yeah, he needed to get up, _now_. Slowly, he stood up, his equilibrium all thrown off from the fall. He walked (wobbled?) over to hide behind a huge boulder, but as he bent down, he lost his balance and fell on his ass behind a wall of vines.

Lance quickly stood up again. That was...weird. The wall had looked pretty solid to him, but he had still clearly managed to fall through it.

Whatever. Lance just needed to get somewhere safe with the crown, somewhere he could hide out until the guards returned back to the castle.

He turned around to walk forward and...abruptly stopped again, because _holy shit_. There was a tower, a _huge_ tower, made of stones and absolutely covered in moss and vines. It had a pointed, purple roof, and if Lance squinted enough, he thought he could make out a window near the top of it.

What a perfect place to hide? It was well-hidden from the vine wall Lance had fallen through, and obviously there wasn't anyone inside of it.

An abandoned tower, just for Lance and his crown. Even though his girlfriend had betrayed him and pushed him off a cliff, it really was turning out to be a good day for him.

He hurried over to the tower, pulling out two arrows from his supplies bag and then stuffing the crown inside of it. He knew he would need both of his hands in order to climb up the tower.

It took awhile, one stab into the tower after another, but he eventually made it all of the way up. Cautiously, he pushed the window open, heaving out a sigh of relief when it opened without any protest. He'd been a little bit afraid that it would it be locked, and he'd have to climb right back down the tower again.

Lance didn't know if he would even be able to. He was _pooped_.

He slipped into the open window and looked around, finding the tower dark and, thankfully, empty. He took the crown out of his bag and then smirked, brushing a finger over one of its gems.

"Finally," he told it, blaming the fact that he was talking to an inanimate object on the fact that he had literally fallen off of a cliff today, "Alone at last."

He was going to maybe look for a bed, or some food, but he didn't get the chance to. Instead, something hard and metallic hit him straight in the head, and then everything went black.

 

* * *

 

Keith had just been about to heat up lunch when Red had started freaking out, her tail pointing frantically at the window. Keith had given her a funny look before peaking out the window, nearly dropping the frying pan in his hands at the sight that met his eyes.

A man who Keith didn't know. Climbing up his tower. Probably come to try and chop his hair off. He let out a panicked squeal and then ran over to where the lights were in the tower, switching them off without a second thought.

He didn't know where to hide, because this had _never_ happened before, so he stood hiding in the shadows, frying pan still in hand.

When the man opened the window and entered the tower, Keith held his breath, his free hand slipping over his mouth. Red gestured for him to _do something_ and Keith gave her a distressed look, because _what could he even do_?

Red pointed to the frying pan in his hands. Oh, right.

"Finally," the man said, and Keith tightened his grip on the handle. Here went nothing. "Alone at last."

Then Keith was swinging, knocking the man right in the head with the cooking utensil. He hit the man hard enough for him to pass out but not enough to actually do any damage, because, god, he didn't want to _hurt him_.

The man fell to the ground, and Keith let out a very manly scream.

He flittered over to the lights and flicked them back on so he could see, observing the man who had invaded his tower. He couldn't really see him too well, because his face was on the floor, so Keith pulled a chair to the middle of the room and then heaved the man up, walking him over to it.

He tried to set him down so he could sit upright, but he immediately slumped forward as if he were about to fall straight out of the chair.

"No, no, no," Keith panicked, pushing the man's shoulders back so they were pressed against the chair, keeping him from falling forward. In doing so, he was able to get a good, close look at the man's face, and it caused his breath to hitch a little in his throat.

He hadn't ever seen another man before, and this one certainly wasn't bad on the eyes. He had tanned skin and soft looking brown hair, and he seemed to be maybe only a year or two older than Keith himself. His eyes were closed, obviously, but Keith couldn't help wondering what color they would be.

He was pulled out of his blatant admiration by a clearing of a throat. He looked over to see that Red was giving him a seriously judgmental look.

"Shut _up_ ," he told her, and then began wrapping his hair over the man's body to act as a restraint. He tied the man's middle to the chair, and then his wrists, and then his legs. There was absolutely no way he'd be able to break free from _that_ , Keith thought proudly to himself.

He then looked over at the object the man had dropped when he'd fallen, his eyes widening in interest. He picked it up and then walked over to his mirror, trying to figure out what to do with the shiny object.

"You got any ideas?" He asked Red.

The chameleon gave him the best shrug she could with her tiny shoulders.

"Hm. Me neither," Keith hummed. He tried putting it on his wrist like the bracelets he'd seen Mother wear, but it was much too big. He then tried to wrap it around his neck, but only ended up jabbing himself in the throat during the process.

He let out a frustrated huff. If it wasn't a necklace or a bracelet, then what else could it be?

Red pointed to her own head, suggesting that Keith should try to put it on his. Keith shrugged, figuring what the heck, and then slipped it onto his head.

He looked up at himself in the mirror and...oh. The object looked...quite nice, actually. Almost as if it belonged there. Keith hadn't been expecting that. He looked over at Red and saw that she was shaking her head, and he let out a quiet laugh.

Maybe he had just been imagining that the object looked right on him. He glanced at himself once more in the mirror before slipping it off of his head, walking over to the steps. He removed the already creaky wooden board from one of them and placed the crown inside of it before putting the board back on top. Keith could definitely use that as leverage, he thought to himself, as an idea started forming in his mind...

 _You want me to wake him up for you?_ Red asked.

Keith looked back at the man. "Um, yeah, I suppose," he said, feeling very shy all of a sudden, "But be gentle about it, okay? I feel bad enough as is about whacking him in the head."

Red let out the closest sound to a snort she could and crawled over to the man as Keith made his way up the steps, hiding in a spot that wasn't currently illuminated.

 

* * *

 

Lance came to from an immensely uncomfortable feeling in his ear. He looked to his right and full on screeched when he saw a red chameleon, of all things, with their tongue in Lance's ear.

"Stop that!" He yelled, and just like that, the chameleon removed its tongue, plopping onto the floor. Lance watched in both fascination and discomfort as the chameleon just...crawled away from him, after that.

He tried to stand, but found that his waist, arms, and legs were being held back by a surprisingly strong substance. It was black...and kind of looked like hair?

 _What the fuck_ , Lance thought to himself. He had taken too many hits to the head today, that had to be it, because no way was he wrapped in what looked like tons and tons of hair.

"Is this...hair?" He asked quietly.

"Yes," a voice said, low and somewhat raspy, and Lance quickly looked up. Whoever was talking was hidden in a dark corner of the tower. "And you're going to tell me what you want to do with it."

Lance scoffed. "Listen, bud, I don't want anything to do with your hair except to _get out of it_."

"Really?" The voice asked, and then there was the sound of shoes hitting the ground. Lance held his breath as the figure hesitantly made its way towards him, stepping into the light, and then...and then Lance felt that same breath come whooshing out of his lungs.

Because the figure was a man, not too much younger than him, and he was _beautiful_. He had light skin that contrasted sharply with the darkness of his hair, and he was dressed in black trousers, black boots, and a long-sleeved gray shirt. Over his shirt he wore a well-fitted crimson colored vest with black strings holding it together in the front, and when Lance's eyes found their way back up to his face, he saw that he was glaring at him.

Even his _eyes_ were pretty. Lance wondered if they were blue or purple? Maybe a mixture of both?

"I _said_ ," the man exclaimed, both of his hands going to his waist. He looked peeved, so Lance thought it would probably be best to actually listen to him this time instead of blatantly checking him out, "Who are you? And how did you find me?"

Lance blinked at him. He didn't really want to confess that he had broken into the tower to hide from castle guards because, well, that made him sound _awfully_ suspicious, and the man _did_ have a frying pan in his hands.

Lance did _not_ want to get hit with that thing again. It was surprisingly painful.

He figured the only way to get out of this was using his natural charm and good lucks, which he had used _plenty_ of other times to get himself out of situations just like this one. Kind of...not really...he could dream, okay?

"I know not of how I found you," Lance started, using his smoothest voice, "But may I just say... _hey_."

He leveled the man with his most seductive smolder and watched as the man's eyes narrowed at him, his grip tightening on the handle of the frying pan.

"The name's Lance, Lance McClain," he said, his lips quirked into a smirk, "How you doin' today, pretty boy?"

The man's cheeks pinked, and Lance thought he was _totally_ getting to him, before he realized his cheeks had colored from anger.

"How am I _doing_?" He asked, and oh, yeah, he was _definitely_ angry. "Well, let's see. I had my tower broken into for the first time in eighteen years, which I'm sure you can imagine was pretty _terrifying_ , and I still have no idea what you want with me because you keep evading my question...and my name is not _pretty boy_ , it's Keith!"

"Whoa, whoa, hold up, _Keith_ ," Lance said, testing the name out on his tongue. He attempted to hold his hands up in protest before remembering that they were still tied to the chair. _Great_. "I don't want _anything_ to do with you. You just happened to be here while I was running away from people who aren't too fond of me and...wait. _Where_ is my crown?" He asked, frantically looking from left to right.

Keith circled his hands together and placed them atop his head. "You mean that thing?"

Lance didn't know if he should laugh or cry. "Um. Yes."

"Oh. I hid it," he said with a nonchalant shrug.

" _Hid it_? Hid it where? I need that thing—"

"Not important," Keith claimed, and Lance opened his mouth to protest, but that was effectively cut off by Keith pulling at his own hair and tugging Lance's chair closer to him, half off the ground. Keith kept one hand in his hair and the other on the edge of the chair, by Lance's right shoulder. Their eyes remained locked together, and huh, his eyes _were_ a mixture of blue and purple.

"You said you've been to the castle?" Keith asked.

Lance cleared his throat. "Um. Yeah. Why?"

He watched as Keith's expression changed from one of intimidation to open curiosity. "Do you know anything about the floating lights?"

"Floating lights?" Lance mused, and then shook his head. "You're gonna have to be more specific than that, babe."

Keith bristled. "Don't _call me that_ ," he said and then backed away, giving Lance's chair another sharp jerk so he was facing a ladder leading to a pair of black curtains.

"Look this way," Keith said as he climbed up the ladder, as if Lance had any say in the matter. He watched as Keith opened up the black curtains, revealing what looked like a...conspiracy board?

"These lights," Keith continued, pointing to what looked like a drawing of the lanterns from the Festival of Lights. "They happen every year, but only once, and I want to know...I want to know _why_ , and what they are."

"Oh, you mean the lanterns," Lance said easily. He watched as Keith's eyes went wide, and it looked like he repeated the word 'lanterns' to himself. "The King and Queen started the tradition of lighting the lanterns and letting them go every year on their son's birthday. It's...kind of a depressing story. I'm not really sure you want to hear it."

Keith plopped right back down on his feet, eyes wide and pleading. " _Please_ tell me, I've been trying to get the story out of Mother for years."

Great, so now Lance was going against this kid's mother's wishes by telling him the tragedy of the baby prince.

"Basically, the King and Queen's son disappeared, but they held out hope that he would see the lights and return back home to them. I'm pretty sure he's dead though, because it's been like...seventeen? Eighteen years?"

"Eighteen?" Keith asked quietly. He then took on a determined expression. "You have to take me to this festival."

"Um, what?" Lance asked with a surprised laugh. "I don't have to do anything."

Keith pursed his lips. He clearly wasn't letting go of this wild idea of his any time soon. "If you want your crown back, you'll take me to the festival."

"Whoa, wait, _what_?" Lance exclaimed. "You're _blackmailing_ me?"

"I don't know what that words means," Keith confessed with a shrug, "But I guess so?"

Lance shook his head. "This can't be happening," he whispered, and then leveled Keith with an inquiring look, "Are you telling me you _haven't_ been to the festival before? Because I was under the impression that anyone who lived in or around the kingdom had been _at least_ once."

Keith twirled a strand of black hair around his finger as his gaze dropped down to the floor. "Um...I've never really...left this tower before. _Ever_."

Lance's mouth dropped open. " _Ever_?" He repeated.

"That's what I said, isn't it?" Keith asked defensively.

"But you're like...what? Eighteen?"

"I will be tomorrow," Keith said, and then huffed, "But that doesn't matter. Mother had good reason to keep me in here, she was trying to protec—"

"What reason is good enough to keep you trapped inside a tower for all of your life?" Lance interrupted, surprised at the anger he could feel bubbling inside of him.

He didn't even know this kid, but the thought of someone being locked up for their entire life when they hadn't even asked to be just seemed... _wrong_ to Lance. Like, really, _really_ wrong.

" _Don't_ ," Keith said, his voice low, and he looked...mad? At Lance? _What_? "I wouldn't expect you to understand. But if we're going to do this, you need to know that all talk of Mother, the tower, _and_ my hair are off limits. Okay?"

Lance shrugged a shoulder. "Yeah, yeah, whatever," he said, though he then squinted his eyes. " _If_ we do this — and, mind you, that's a _big_ if — how am I supposed to trust that you'll even return my crown back to me?"

Keith took a step closer to him, his eyes blazing into Lance's own. Lance tried his best not to get distracted.

"I'm trusting you to get me to the castle and back safely. That's a pretty big task. I mean, that's my _life_ I'm entrusting you with," Keith said, and Lance only grimaced a little at all of that responsibility, "So if I can trust you with something as big as that, you're going to have to trust that I'll return your crown back to you."

Lance searched Keith's face, trying to find any signs of dishonesty, but wasn't at all surprised to find that he just looked incredibly earnest. _Of course_ he did. He probably wanted out of this tower more than anything, and he was asking Lance to help him with that.

Lance let out a heavy breath. Curse his big heart and his weakness for pretty eyes.

"Okay, okay, let's do it," Lance resigned, "To the castle and back."

Keith pumped his fist into the air, his eyes bright and smile wide as he exclaimed, " _Yes_!", and Lance refused to think it was cute.

 

* * *

 

Ten minutes into the trip and Lance was already regretting his decision. He had climbed down the tower no problem and had told Keith to do the same, but of course Keith hadn't listened. He was currently peaking his head out of the window, hesitating to latch his hair onto the hook for him to climb down.

"Come on, princess!" Lance yelled up at him. "Let down your hair!"

Even from all of the distance between them, Lance could see that Keith was fuming.

"Don't _call me that_!" He yelled, and then looked behind him, as if he were thinking about just calling it quits.

As much as Lance wanted that, he would still feel kind of bad if Keith came to that decision before even leaving the tower once. So he told him, in a surprising moment of sincerity, "Look, something tells me you've been waiting for this moment your entire life. Just go ahead and take it."

Not even a minute later, Keith was hooking his hair up and throwing it over the side of the tower. Lance watched, only a little bit in awe, as he gracefully slid down it, a soft laugh escaping his mouth once he reached the ground.

Before Lance could even say anything, Keith was throwing himself to the ground, his hands running all throughout the grass. Then he was picking handfuls of it and...smelling it?

"Um...are you...sniffing grass?" Lance asked hesitantly.

Keith looked over at him as if he had just remembered he was also there. "Yes, I am," he said, very pointedly. "It smells so...fresh? And I always imagined the grass to be really soft, but it actually kind of tickles?"

He let out another chuckle as he stood up, wiping off any grass from his pants that had stuck to him, and _damn it_ , he was adorable. Lance wasn't even going to try to deny it anymore.

He could only watch as Keith ran over to a bed of flowers and plucked one from the ground, sticking his nose right in it.

"Wow, it smells _amazing_ ," he breathed in awe, and then stuffed it into Lance's own face. "Smell!"

Lance pushed his hand (and, by default, the flower) away from his face. "I've smelled plenty of flowers before, princess."

Keith glared at him. "You haven't smelled _this one_ ," he huffed out, but then gingerly set the flower down with the others, as if he hadn't just killed it by plucking it from the ground. Lance wasn't going to be the one to break the hard news to him.

They continued walking through the forest, Keith looking from his left to his right and back again, clearly taking everything in. He actually seemed like he was doing a pretty good job with everything: up until they walked past a bush that started rattling by itself.

Before Lance even knew what was happening, Keith was jumping onto Lance's back, his legs wrapping around his waist as his arms looped across his neck.

" _Whatwasthat_?" He rushed out, his breath coming out harsh in Lance's ear.

A bunny hopped out of the bush and he heard Keith draw in a sharp breath.

"Is it vicious?" He whispered to Lance.

Lance gently set him down. "I'm pretty sure a bunny is one of the least vicious creatures you could come across," he assured.

Keith let out a breath. His cheeks were red. "Right, yeah, duh," he said, letting out a nervous chuckle. He then frowned. "I'm sorry. I think I'm still a bit...jumpy."

 _Literally_ , Lance thought to himself. Then an idea popped into his mind. If Keith was still a bit "jumpy", as he said, then Lance knew the perfect place to take him.

"Hey, you hungry?" Lance asked, giving Keith a gentle smile.

Keith blinked at him. "Um, well, considering you barged into my tower right before I had the time to fix lunch..."

Lance's smile disappeared from his face. He wondered how someone as cute as Keith could also be so...blunt.

"I know this place we could go to, if you're still feeling kind of intimidated by everything. It's called the Snuggly Duckling. A duckling is a little animal, probably one of the least intimidating ones you could come across, really cute—"

"I know what a duckling is, Lance," Keith interrupted, giving Lance a personally offended look, "I'm sheltered, not _stupid_."

Lance gaped. "You just jumped into my arms because you didn't know if a bunny was vicious or not."

"Some things I've read about and others I haven't," he explained, as if it was the simplest thing in the world. "Now if you could _please_ lead the way to this place?"

Once again, Lance thought as he started the walk to the Snuggly Duckling, cute but lacking _any_ manners.

Though, then again, he _had_ said please.

 

* * *

 

Unfortunately for Lance, it didn't take Keith long to notice that the Snuggly Duckling wasn't the cute little restaurant Lance had made it out to be, but instead a grimy little pub. Before they were even inside, Keith was spinning around and knocking his fist into Lance's arm.

"Ow!" Lance yelled. "What was _that_ for?"

"Why did you take me here?" Keith asked, jabbing his finger into Lance's chest. "Are you trying to get me drunk so you can have your way with me?"

Lance full on spluttered because what? _What_? How did Keith even know about all of... _that_? And did he really think that Lance would do something like that?

"No, no, that is — not even _close_ to why I brought you here. How do you not know what a bunny is but know about all of...that?"

Keith took a step away from him so he was no longer jabbing Lance in the chest, even though he still looked kinda pissed.

"Mother explained, in great detail, all the horrors of the world to me when I became a teenager. I think it was to prevent me from wanting to leave the tower," Keith told him calmly, as if that was just something normal that all mothers did.

Lance grimaced. "I'm sorry," he apologized. "Listen, Keith, I know we don't really know each other all too well, but I would _never_ do something like that to you, and I'm going to make sure no else does either, okay?"

Keith stared at him for a long time, unblinking, before he was nodding his head. "Okay," he agreed, "I told you back in the tower that I trust you, and I...I do."

Lance couldn't help but smile. It was good to know he still had Keith's trust.

"So why did you bring me here?" Keith asked, focusing back on the pub.

The smile fell right back off of his face. Well, shit, he couldn't come right out and say that it was to scare him off...

"I have some friends who work here," he said, which _wasn't_ a lie, and he mentally patted himself on the back when Keith accepted those words with a nod. He made to walk inside of the pub but Lance grabbed onto his arm, stopping him. Keith looked back at him, his eyes wide and curious, and Lance felt himself swallow. "Um. Maybe don't drink anything while we're in here. The drinks can be...kinda strong."

Keith gave him a small smile. "Okay," he said, and then he was stepping inside of the pub with Lance right behind him.

As soon as he was inside, Lance watched as his mouth just...dropped. He was undoubtedly looking at all of the huge, beefy men inside of the pub, with missing limbs and eyepatches and questionable substances on their tattered clothing.

When he turned back to face Lance, he actually looked scared.

Lance placed an arm around Keith's shoulders, pulling him closer. "You know," he said, "We could _always_ just go back to the tower. I drop you off, you give me the crown, the both of us part amiably..."

Keith shrugged out of Lance's grasp. The heat of the glare he aimed Lance's way caused a shiver to run down his spine.

"That would be too easy for you, wouldn't it?" He asked, and then he was leaving Lance in favor of finding an empty table all by himself.

Well. Lance would be lying if he said Keith wasn't full of surprises.

He hurriedly walked over to join him at a small table in the back, not too far from the fireplace. Keith's seat was facing the flames so he stared directly at them, his gaze unwavering.

"You alright?" Lance asked cautiously.

Keith blinked. "Oh. Uh, yeah," he said, and offered a small smile that Lance wondered was fake or not.

Before he could ask any more on the subject, he was being crushed into a bear hug. Lance only knew one person who could hug so well, so he stood up, crushing the other guy right back.

"Lance, man, I've _missed you_."

And yeah, that was _definitely_ Hunk.

He backed away to get a look at his friend and felt himself smile widely. Hunk looked good, happy, and that made Lance feel exactly the same.

"I've missed you, too," he made sure to tell him. "How have you been?"

"Good, good," Hunk said easily, "You know I can't complain." He then seemed to notice Keith and gave Lance a sly grin. "And who's this?"

Keith held his hand out for Hunk to take, which Lance couldn't help being surprised about. How did someone locked in a tower for eighteen years know basic etiquette?

"I'm Keith," he introduced with a smile.

Hunk smiled warmly back at him. "And I'm Hunk. Lance and I go _way back_." He then looked between the two of them. "So are you two dating, or?"

"No!" Lance exclaimed at the same time Keith's face wrinkled up and said, "Ew". Lance let out an indignant noise as Hunk burst into laughter.

"Oh, man, even if you aren't Lance's boyfriend, I _like you_ ," he told Keith through his chuckles.

Lance sat back down as Hunk took both of their orders, and as soon as he was gone, Keith smiled smugly over at Lance.

"What?" Lance grumbled, still feeling a little bitter from Keith saying _ew_ to dating him. Lance was not ugly, okay? He stood by the fact that he was actually pretty attractive. Keith would be _lucky_ to date him.

"He likes me," Keith said happily.

Lance pointed a finger in Hunk's general direction. "Who, Hunk?" He asked. "Hunk likes everyone. It's really not that big of an accomplishment."

Keith hummed, still looking awfully pleased with himself.

But then two guys started punching at each other and the smile immediately vanquished from Keith's face, his eyes wide with unconcealed horror.

Without even having to think about it, his hand slipped into Keith's own on the table, giving it a gentle squeeze.

"Hey," he said softly, and Keith's eyes fluttered away from the fight so he could look at Lance instead. "It's okay. In fact, this sort of stuff happens all of the time."

Keith bit his bottom lip. It was clear that he was purposely avoiding looking at the fight.

"Are they going to hurt each other?" He asked Lance, and Lance wanted to tell those wide, innocent eyes that no, they weren't, but he knew he couldn't lie to Keith.

"Yeah," Lance responded, "But not too bad. They'll be okay."

That seemed to comfort Keith momentarily, but then his eyes were looking back in the direction of the fight, and he was frowning.

"They're coming over here," he panicked.

Lance nearly fell out of his chair. "They're _what_?"

He turned to look where Keith was looking and saw two, huge guys, both carrying wanted posters in their hands. They were too close for Lance to run away from, so playing dumb would have to be his next best bet.

"Is this you?" One of the guys asked, all but shoving the poster into Lance's face. Lance slipped his hand out of Keith's to remove the poster from his face, scoffing when he saw how badly they had drawn his nose. Was it really that hard to get his stupid nose right?

"Look at that nose," Lance said to the two men, "Does that look _anything_ like mine? No? I didn't think so."

"Oh," said guy number two, "He does have a point. It really doesn't look like his nose."

Lance was almost in the clear, but of course Hunk chose that moment to come over with both of their meals.

"Here you go, Lance," he told him as he set down both of their plates on the table. Lance's eyes went wide, as did Keith's, and they both looked over at the two guys, hoping they hadn't heard.

Of course, Lance was not that lucky. Guy number one pointed at the poster. "Lance, huh? That's funny. That's the same name as the guy on this wanted poster."

Lance swallowed nervously, letting out a fake laugh. "What a coincidence, eh?"

Guy number two seemed to've had enough of Lance's shit, because he lifted Lance out of his seat by the back of his shirt. "Coincidence my ass," he said, "I'm taking you to the castle and cashing you in myself."

"No, _I'm_ taking him," argued guy number one, and then pulled on the other side of Lance's shirt until they were both just tugging him back and forth.

"Wait!" Keith shouted, quickly standing up from the table. Both of the guys turned to look at him, as did Lance, curious as to what he was going to say. "You can't take him."

Guy number one gave him a smirk. "Oh yeah? And why's that?"

Keith bristled. "Because he's helping me live out my dream."

Guy number one and guy number two both shared a look. "Your...dream?" They both asked.

Keith smiled. "Yeah, my dream! Haven't you guys ever had a dream?"

Lance could only watch in amazement as the two guys both started going on about their dreams to settle down one day with a beautiful woman and to own their own businesses. Then the rest of the bar was joining in, everyone chattering about dreams they'd had when they were younger and dreams they still kept close.

Lance tried to close his mouth, but it just...wouldn't shut. He was truly in shock.

"What dream is he helping you live out?" Hunk asked with a kind smile Keith's way.

Keith smiled right back at him. "He's taking me to the castle to see the Festival of Lights. I've never been before but I've always wanted to go."

Hesitantly, both of the guys set Lance down, and he quickly sat back down in his seat. Thank _god_ for Keith.

"That's a good dream to have," guy number one told Keith, who smiled at him.

"Thank you," he said.

"What about you?" Guy number two asked, looking in Lance's direction. "You got a dream?"

Lance waved a hand at the question. "Pft, no, dreams are for little chil—" Keith kicked his foot under the table, glaring at him in a 'you're going to get your ass whooped if you keep talking' type of way. "I mean," Lance started again, "I've always wanted to live in a castle."

"That's a stupid dream," Guy number two told him, and then they were both walking away from the two of them and over to the bar instead.

Keith hid a laugh behind his hand as Lance rolled his eyes.

"Go ahead, laugh it up. They liked your dream and thought mine was stupid. I'm sure that's _hilarious_ to you," Lance said.

Keith shook his head, taking a bite of his food. "If it helps, _I_ don't think it's a stupid dream. I'm sure you have your reasons for it."

Lance raised an eyebrow at those words. "Really?" He asked quietly.

"Yeah," Keith said, "I don't think any dreams are stupid. To say so is honestly kind of disrespectful, but I wasn't about to tell _him_ that." Keith nodded in guy number two's direction, and Lance couldn't help it: he laughed.

"Very smart of you," he told Keith, who beamed at him.

They were only about halfway done with their meals when Hunk was hurrying over to them. He looked seriously stressed.

"What's going on?" Lance asked, already preparing to flee if need be.

"There's castle guards blocking the entrance. They'll be in here within a couple of minutes."

Lance cursed and dug in his pocket to get out the right amount of money for their meals, but Hunk shook his head.

"Hey, man, it's fine," he told him, "Go see Pidge, okay? And don't be a stranger."

Lance smiled as he stood up, patting Hunk on the back. "Thanks, Hunk. I won't be," he told him warmly, and then he was taking Keith's hand in his, dragging him over to the bar.

"Where are we going?" Keith asked confusedly.

"Anywhere but here," Lance responded.

Once they both made it to the bar, a small brunette dressed in green turned around to face them, wide glasses covering their eyes.

"Oh, hey, Lance!" They greeted.

"Hey, Pidge," Lance said with a grimace. "Listen, I'd love to catch up more than anything, but we gotta get out of here. Like, _now_."

There was a knock on the front door, and Pidge's eyes went wide with understanding.

"Follow me," they said. Keith and Lance both went behind the bar and saw that there was a hidden exit open for them. It was a deep, dark slope that led down to an underground tunnel.

Pidge handed Lance a torch. "Here, you're going to need this," they said, "Now go, they're coming in!"

"Thanks, Pidge!" Lance whispered loudly and then he was sliding down the slope, Keith following after him.

When both of their feet hit the rocky ground of the tunnel, a few pebbles came loose from above them.

Keith looked up, his nose scrunched. "Is this tunnel even safe?"

Lance shrugged as he began walking forward. "Safer than being caught by those guards back there."

"Is it alright to ask exactly _what_ you did to be so highly wanted?" Keith asked, and then stopped in his tracks, eyeing Lance suspiciously. "Did you kill someone?"

Lance huffed. "Really? You _really_ think I'm a murderer?"

"I don't know!" Keith exclaimed. "I mean, you could be! You have enough people against you for it not to be considered unbelievable."

"I'm not a murderer," Lance said quietly. "I'm...somewhat of a thief."

"Oh yeah? What'd you steal?"

Lance frowned. He didn't want to tell Keith, because he knew he would end up judging him, even if he didn't really understand Lance's reasoning behind why he had done it.

"The prince's crown."

He heard a gasp from behind him. "You mean the dead baby prince's?"

Well, when Keith said it like _that_.

" _Why_ would you do that?"

Lance spun around to face him, feeling the anger begin to flow through him. He knew Keith, who was all sheltered and innocent, wouldn't understand.

"Maybe because not all of us can afford to make it through the day, so we do what we have to do!" He yelled.

They both looked up as the roof of the tunnel began to ominously shake and they stayed still as statues, not making any movements or sounds. Once the roof stopped shaking, Keith spoke again.

"Okay," he said quietly, "I guess I wouldn't understand. Mother always provided everything for me. I'm...sorry."

Lance looked at Keith in shock. Just like that, he was sorry?

Then he shook his head, continuing to walk with Keith right by his side.

"It's okay," he murmured, "I'm not trying to defend thieving, because it's obviously not a _good thing_ , but. It's the only thing I'm good at."

Keith's eyebrows furrowed. "I'm sure that's not true."

Before Lance could refute that statement, say, yeah, it definitely was true, there was a loud yell of "McClain!" from behind them.

The two of them both spun around, seeing that there were multiple castle guards behind them, running after them.

"Time to run!" Lance exclaimed and was about to do just that when he saw that Keith was standing stock still, his eyes wide with concern. "Keith, bud, now is _not_ the time to freeze up—"

"There's too many people in here, too much motion and noise," Keith said shakily, "The roof is going to collapse."

Lance looked up at the roof and...oh. Keith had a point. It looked one more move away from just...falling through.

"Then we just gotta take our chances," Lance said with a wince. He wished he had a better answer than that.

Keith nodded and then he was running, Lance right beside him.

It seemed like they were going to make it before anything could fall and crush them, when all of a sudden Lance's torch blew out.

"No!" He shouted, as total darkness surrounded them.

"Lance, your voice," Keith hissed, but apparently it didn't matter, because they both heard a loud thump as a chunk of the tunnel's roof hit the ground somewhere behind them.

The roof was starting to cave in.

"Do we keep going?" Keith asked.

Lance let out a breath to try and steady himself. He didn't _know_.

"We can't just stand here without, you know, _dying_ , but if we go forward without any light, we won't be able to see the boulders falling from the roof. It's possible we could get hit and..."

"You need light?" Keith asked. He sounded nervous. "I have light."

Lance knew Keith couldn't see him, but he cast a confused look his way.

"How do you have light?" He asked.

"Just trust me," Keith whispered, and then he heard his voice, a quiet hum, saying, "Flower burn and glow, let your power shine."

Lance had seen _a lot_ in his nineteen years of living, but nothing prepared him for what happened next. Keith's hair burst into actual, genuine flames, and all Lance could see was red and orange as the flames illuminated not only the cave, but Keith's entire face.

  
His mouth was open and his eyes, usually dark purplish-blue, were glowing gold.

Lance stepped away from him. "H-How?" He choked out, unable to tear his eyes away from Keith's face. Lance was shocked, yes, and a little bit scared, but mostly he couldn't get over how _radiant_ Keith looked. Lance wasn't sure if he had ever seen anything so beautiful before in his life.

"We don't have _time_ for why!" Keith exclaimed, and then he was taking a dazed Lance's hand in his and continuing to run straight ahead.

They weren't too far away from the exit, but once they reached it, they saw that it was blocked off by a wall of rocks.

"We should be able to clear the exit without too much of a hassle," Lance said, already beginning to kick and shove at the rocks. A couple gave way under his actions, but a lot stayed in place. "Help me out?"

"Yeah," Keith breathed, and Lance watched as his boot went colliding with the rock right smack in the middle of the pile. The rock came flying out, leaving a huge hole in its place, and Lance gaped as the rest of rocks collapsed right after it. _Of course_ Keith would go for the main rock on his first try and successfully get rid of it.

Lance wasn't sure if he was more jealous or impressed.

He must have been too busy staring at Keith with his mouth open because Keith let out an impatient noise and then pulled him out of the tunnel.

"Thanks," Lance breathed, watching with a small feeling of disappointment as Keith's hair turned back to normal. His cheeks were slightly pink.

"No problem," he responded.

They both watched as the tunnel collapsed only a few seconds later. Lance's chest heaved as he watched, thinking that they could have still been in there, if it wasn't for Keith's hair, and then...

And then he felt a face burrowing into his neck, and Lance was pretty sure his heart started beating even faster than it had before.

"You okay?" Lance whispered, wrapping an arm around Keith's shoulders to hold him closer.

"Do you — do you think the guards?" Keith asked, clearly not even able to finish the sentence.

"I'm sure they noticed what was happening and ran back to the pub," Lance assured, even though there was no way he could know for sure. He wasn't about to tell Keith that they had all been _killed_. He then held Keith at arm's length, both of his hands on Keith's arms.

"Listen, if you want to go back, I totally understand," Lance told him. Keith gave him a hurt look and then Lance quickly shook his head. "And I'm not — I promise, I'm not saying it for me this time. I'm saying it for you. We've been through _a lot_ today, and who knows what else we might still face along the way. I guess I just...I want to make sure you're going to be okay."

Keith took a moment to respond, his eyes moving up and down Lance's face enough times to make Lance feel slightly self-conscious. He then reached out, placing his hand on top of Lance's arm.

"I'm fine," he said, his lips quirking into a small, tired smile. "You don't have to worry about me. I can hold my own."

Lance breathed out a laugh. "You're telling me," he said, and regretfully let go of Keith, "I mean, first the pub, and then the rocks, and the...the hair?"

Keith pointed a finger at him. " _Hey_ , I said don't mention the hair."

"Oh, come on, you have to at least tell me _something._ I'm like...trying _very_ hard not to freak out right now," Lance admitted, and found that his curiosity really was getting the best of him.

"Okay," Keith relented, "But can we find somewhere to set up camp first?"

Lance nodded. "Absolutely. Lead the way, princess."

 

* * *

 

They found a place to stay just as the sun began to set. Keith watched the purples and pinks in the sky and chuckled as Red shifted to try and imitate the colors in the sky.

"You look just like them," he told her proudly.

Lance had gone to get firewood, so Keith had waited on the overgrown tree root they'd found to rest on for the night.

Keith looked unseeingly at the empty fire pit as his mind filled with thoughts of Mother. He wondered where she was right now, and then immediately felt guilty.

 _Why_? Keith asked himself frustratedly. Why did he feel guilty? He hadn't done anything wrong, and it wasn't like Mother even knew that he was gone yet. If all went according to plan, Mother wouldn't _ever_ find out that he had left, because he'd be back to the tower before she even returned from her trip.

But...Keith couldn't deny the way his entire body filled with dread at just the thought of returning to the tower. He liked being outside. He liked the scenery, and the meeting new people, and...Keith let out a small sigh.

He liked Lance.

He liked the way he held his hand, the way he looked him in the eyes and asked if he was okay. He liked his bright blue eyes and his kind smile.

He knew that they'd be parting ways as soon as Keith returned back to the tower, he _knew_ this, but he also knew that there was a part of him that didn't want to leave Lance.

Was that crazy? Keith felt crazy. He didn't know why a larger part of him wanted to stay with Lance than he did with his own mother, who had raised and nurtured and taken care of him.

Mother would be... _devastated_ , no doubt about it. Keith didn't want to hurt her, but he also knew that he had to start living his own life eventually, and he _was_ turning eighteen tomorrow...

He jumped when the firewood was dropped into the pit in front of him with a loud thud. Looking up, Keith saw that Lance was back, looking at him with concern clear on his face.

"You okay?" Lance asked quietly, taking a seat on the bark next to him.

Keith mustered up the best smile he could manage. "I'm good," he confirmed.

Lance pointed to the firewood. "Think you could, you know?" He asked, gesturing to his own hair.

"No," Keith said regretfully, "My hair can't light things on fire. It just kinda... _is_ on fire?"

"Seriously?"

Keith shrugged. "I wish I could explain why, but even I don't know. Mother says I was born this way, but..."

"But you're not sure if you believe her?" Lance guessed as he rubbed two of the planks together, successfully starting a fire in no time at all.

Keith hadn't ever expressed his doubts about Mother to anyone except his own mind, how _could he_ , but...but Lance was looking at him with an open expression, completely free of judgement, and Keith _had_ to open up to him.

"There's just _so much_ that I feel like she keeps from me," he confessed, letting out a breath at the heavy weight slowly being removed from his shoulders. "Like, she wouldn't _ever_ tell me about the lights, even though it was all I wanted. She told me they were stars, but...she must have known that they weren't. And she gets so _touchy_ about my hair. I mean...I can understand why, I guess. Maybe I'm just being ungrateful..."

"Hey," Lance said, his blue eyes staring into Keith's own, "You're allowed to be unhappy with how you're being treated. You're allowed to feel however you want. That doesn't make you ungrateful, or...or a bad son."

Keith's eyebrows furrowed. "Really?" He asked.

Lance let out a soft laugh. He sounded sad, much to Keith's surprise. "Absolutely," he said, and placed his hand on top of Keith's.

Keith looked down at their hands and smiled, his heart just about beating out of his chest, until he noticed something red on both of their hands.

" _Lance_!" He exclaimed, quickly removing his hand from Lance's own. "You're _bleeding_."

Lance put his injured hand in front of his face. "Huh. Looks like I am."

"Geez, you could have _said something_."

"It's just a knick I got while picking out the wood," Lance said. "It's not anything serious."

Keith bit his bottom lip. Mother had always, _always_ told him to never trust anyone with the secret of what his hair could do. Keith had always agreed, figuring he wouldn't ever leave the tower anyway, but...but he was very much out of the tower right now, and Lance had a cut, a cut that Keith could easily get rid of.

"Give me your hand," he whispered to Lance, practically shaking with nerves. He didn't want Lance to think he was a freak or, worse, for him to try and take Keith's powers away from him.

Lance handed him his hand without a second thought, and Keith took it into his own, using his free hand to bind it with his hair.

"Whoa, whoa," Lance said, but didn't try to pull his hand away. "What're you doing?"

Keith looked up at him, all but pleading. "Please don't freak out."

"I won't," Lance answered immediately, looking surprised with himself.

Keith smiled and then he was closing his eyes, softly singing the lyrics he knew like the back of his hand. "Flower burn and glow, let your power shine. Make the clock reverse, bring back what once was mine. Heal what has been hurt. Change the Fates' design. Save what has been lost. Bring back what once was mine, what once was mine."

He then opened his eyes, knowing they were glowing, and saw that Lance was just watching him, his mouth slightly open.

Keith liked the way Lance looked at him when he had just used his powers. Not greedy, or scared, but...in awe. He hadn't ever been looked at like that before.

He felt his hair go back to normal and then removed it from Lance's hand. He was about to tell him to take a look, but Red beat him to it, gesturing to her own hand. Keith held back a laugh.

Lance finally looked at his hand, and if his mouth had been slightly open before, it was full on gaping now. He was flipping his hand back and forth, as if to try and find where the cut had gone.

"Wha — How?" He asked Keith, his breathing getting faster and Keith frantically shook his head.

"Please don't freak out," he pleaded.

"Freak out? I'm not freaking out," Lance said in a tone that clearly indicated that he was, in fact, freaking out. "I'm just very interested in your hair and the magical qualities it possesses how long has been it been doing that exactly?"

Those last words were all said in one breath, and Keith couldn't help but laugh as he saw that Lance was red in the face from saying so much in so little time.

"Mother says since I was born," Keith responded, twirling a strand of long hair between his fingers. "When I was little, Mother told me someone tried to cut my hair and keep it for themselves. But once its cut, it loses its magical qualities. It'll be just...hair."

"That's why she kept you locked up in that tower," Lance guessed, "So no one could try and cut your hair."

Keith let out a sigh, resting his chin in his hands as he stared out at the fire.

"Yeah," he confessed quietly. "It would be a shame to waste powers like mine," he said, repeating Mother's words.

"You know that wasn't her decision to make, right?" Lance asked, and Keith turned around to face him, his eyes narrowing.

"She was just trying to protect me," he said heatedly, though he wasn't sure if he was trying to convince himself or Lance more at this point.

Lance held up both of his hands in resignation. "Sure, sure. But, just some advice from an outsider: it sounds like she's manipulating you something awful, and if I were you, I wouldn't ever go back to that tower."

Keith didn't say that he had nowhere else to go, but the words were on the tip of his tongue. He didn't know what else he _could_ say. There was _so much_ to think about, so many decisions to make, and Keith didn't even know where to start.

"Then again, I guess I'm not the best person to go to when it comes to family," Lance said, and Keith quickly turned to look at him. It sounded like Lance was giving him an out by talking about his own family, which Keith couldn't have been more grateful for. "I haven't seen them in over a year, after all."

"How come?" Keith asked quietly.

Lance gave him a small, sad smile. "I never knew my real family. I grew up in a foster home, but I came to think of everyone in there as my own family. When I turned eighteen, I...I had to leave. I was technically an adult, and all that, so. I haven't seen anyone from there since then."

Keith's lips pulled down into a frown. "I'm sorry," he murmured, "Couldn't you still visit them, though?"

"I'm afraid it'll be too painful," Lance confessed. "I can't start _crying_ or anything. I have a reputation to uphold, princess!"

Keith let out a soft chuckle, even though his heart hurt for Lance. "You know," he said, feeling his pulse skyrocket at what he was about to say, "I could always go with you. To see them, that is. If you don't want to be alone."

Lance turned to face him, and Keith saw that his mouth was open, eyes wide. "You'd," he started, and then cleared his throat as his eyebrows furrowed, "You'd do that for me?" He asked.

Keith felt his mouth quirk into a smile. "Lance, you're doing... _so much_ for me. And I know it's technically because of the blackmailing thing, as you called it, but. It'd be an honor to return the favor to you in that way."

Lance was looking at him in a way that Keith hadn't ever been looked at before, and it made him go hot under the collar, his cheeks flushing.

Then Lance smiled back at him. "You have no idea how much that'd mean to me," he told him quietly.

"Then it's a plan," Keith said, trying to regain any semblance of dignity he had left. He was sure that he must have looked terribly moonstruck as he gazed at Lance, smiling and blushing, but...

But Lance was smiling right back at him, eyes soft, so maybe... _maybe_ Keith wasn't the only one who felt the way he did.

 _You've known him for less than day_ , a voice in his head that sounded suspiciously like Mother's said, and Keith turned away, as did Lance, once again clearing his throat.

"I should, uh, get us some more firewood," Lance said, standing up, "So we have enough for the night."

"Yeah, good idea," Keith agreed quietly. He stared after Lance as he walked away, his heart fluttering pathetically in his chest.

Red leveled him with a knowing look and Keith sighed, shaking his head.

"I'm not even going to try and deny it," he confessed, "I'm sure I'm being awfully obvious."

 _It's okay_ , Red told him, _Lance is...not bad._

"Wow, 'not bad'," Keith repeated with a smirk, "That's quite the compliment from you."

"Well, let me just say, I thought he'd never leave," said a voice that was definitely _not_  Lance's or Red's.

Keith felt himself stop breathing, a chill traveling down his spine. He slowly turned around, desperately hoping that he was just hearing things, but of course that wasn't the case.

Because Mother was standing only a couple of feet behind him, clad in a midnight black cloak.

"Mother," Keith gasped as he stood up. "How — how did you find me?"

"Oh, it was easy, really," Mother said flippantly. "I just followed the sound of complete and utter betrayal and followed that."

Keith grimaced. "Mother, I'm sorry, but I—"

"It doesn't matter," Mother interrupted, snatching Keith's hand in her own, "It doesn't matter because we are going home _immediately_."

"No!" Keith exclaimed. "I can't go back yet. I've seen and learned so much already, and I want to experience even more. Lance is taking me to the festival tomorrow for my birthday."

"Lance," Mother repeated with a deep scowl. "Is he the boy who stole you away from me and filled your head with all of these silly ideas?"

Keith shook his head. "He didn't steal me away. I...I asked him to take me."

Mother huffed. She seemed amused. "Of course you did. What did I tell you, darling? You trusted the very first person you met who wasn't me."

"No," Keith said boldly, "Lance isn't like that, he's...he's different."

His voice must have changed, or maybe his face did, because Mother's own expression changed into one of shock.

"You _like him_ ," she accused.

Keith shrugged. "Maybe."

Mother gently took Keith's chin in her hand, forcing him to look up at her. She studied his face for a few seconds before letting him go.

Then she laughed. "Yes, I can definitely see it now. Oh, Keith, so innocent, so naïve. I hope you know you're just going to get your heart broken if you stay with him."

"No I won't," Keith said, but his voice wobbled. "I won't because I think he likes me, too."

"Likes you, too?" Mother repeated, throwing her head back with another laugh. "That's demented. Boys like him only want one thing, sweetie, and it isn't _love_."

"What do you mean?" Keith asked, furrowing his eyebrows.

Mother looked at him, her face sobering as she let out a sigh. "The fact that you don't even know what I'm talking about is all the more reason for you to _come back home_."

She tried tugging him forward but Keith pulled his hand out from her's, standing his ground.

"I'm not going back with you," he told her firmly.

Mother's eyebrows raised. She had clearly been expecting him to cave by now. "You're not, are you?" She asked, her voice shaking as she held back her anger. "Fine. But don't come crawling back to me when he leaves you high and dry, saying I knew best all along."

Keith swallowed. "I _won't_."

Mother made to leave but then turned back around, her lips in a smug smile.

"Oh, how could I forget?" She asked, and then she was throwing a bag to Keith, which he quickly caught in his arms. "This is what he _really_ wants. Give him this and he's gone."

Then she was gone, just as quickly as she had come.

Keith looked down at the bag in his hands and slowly opened it, feeling his heart plummet once he saw what it was.

The crown.

"Hey, you okay?"

Keith shoved the bag somewhere behind him and spun around, smiling shakily at Lance.

"I'm good," he lied.

Lance's eyes stayed on him for a second before he was shrugging, sitting back down. "Okay," he said, "So, about sleeping arrangements. I was thinking I could sleep on one side of the trunk and you could—"

But Keith toned him out. He looked over his shoulder at the bag, Mother's words playing on a loop inside his head.

_This is what he really wants. Give him this and he's gone._

 

* * *

 

Keith slept fitfully that night. Part of it was probably the fact that he was sleeping on an actual tree trunk, but mostly his mind kept replaying Mother's words. Here he had developed feelings for Lance when, for all he knew, Lance only cared about getting his crown back.

Thankfully, they left for the kingdom early in the morning. Keith wouldn't have been able to spend one more minute alone with his thoughts.

"Are we fairly close?" Keith asked as he and Lance continued their walk through the forest.

Lance hummed. "Yeah, we should be nearing it soon." He then smirked over at him. "Why? You getting nervous?"

Keith scoffed at him. " _No_ , I'm getting excited. I've waited all of my life to see this place. It better be good."

"I think you'll like it," Lance said with a laugh.

Lance hadn't been lying when he'd said they'd be nearing the castle soon. Not even ten more minutes passed by before Keith was standing just outside the entrance of the kingdom, staring up at the castle in the distance.

His mouth dropped open at how... _beautiful_ it all was. The castle itself, the water surrounding it, all of the people bustling around in the distance. Keith had dreamed of coming here, and now here he was, only a long, stone bridge separating him from it.

"You ready to live out your dream, princess?" He heard Lance ask him.

Keith turned to face him. "I don't know," he said honestly.

Lance gave him a smile and then he was taking Keith's hands in his, pulling him forward. "Then I'll make the decision for you."

Keith stumbled after him before catching his footing. Lance was walking so fast that he was practically running.

"Why so fast?" Keith huffed out.

"The guards can't make me out if I'm walking fast," Lance said, and Keith couldn't help it.

He let out a loud laugh.

"Great logic, Lance," he told him.

They made it to the hub of the kingdom in no time at all, what with how fast Lance was leading them through. Keith disconnected their hands so he could have a moment to just...take everything in.

There were _so many_ people. They were buying from street vendors, dancing, riding horses, drawing portraits with chalk on the sidewalks...

Looking up, Keith's eyes met with a mural on the side of one of the many buildings' walls. He walked over until he was stood right in front of it, too much in a daze to hear Lance's exclamations of "Keith!".

It was a family. There was a man and a woman, both highly dressed up with crowns on their heads, and they were smiling brightly. Clearly they were the King and Queen. The King had brown hair and brown eyes with a little bit of stubble on his chin, while the Queen had curly black hair and dark blue, almost purple eyes. Next to them stood a child, probably seven or eight, with black hair and brown eyes. He had his finger held out to the fourth and final family member, a baby, and was grinning as his little brother curled his tiny fingers around his bigger one.

At the sight of the baby, Keith felt his lips part in surprise. He had black, curly hair and blue-purple eyes...just like Keith's own. Keith's brows furrowed but then he shook his head because no, _no_ , that couldn't be possible. Mother would tell him that he was having silly fantasies if he even so much as _thought_ about telling her that...

"Keith, god, _there_ you are. Don't scare me like that!"

Keith jumped at the sound of Lance's voice. He looked over at him and frowned.

"What happened to the King and Queen?" He asked.

Lance's own mouth turned down into a frown. "They, uh. They passed away a few years back. People around the kingdom said they weren't ever the same after losing their baby."

Keith's shoulders slumped. _Oh_.

"And...and the kid?" Keith asked, pointing to the kid whom he assumed was the prince.

"He's the King now," Lance told him, and Keith watched as his mouth finally turned upwards into a smile. "He's been a really good King so far. I think him and Queen Allura, that's his wife, are what this kingdom has needed."

Keith continued to stare at the picture, almost unable to look away. He was...captivated by it, no matter how sad it made him feel.

"That's so sad," he made sure to let Lance know. "He's...he's the only one left."

"I know," Lance murmured. "It is. But...I think he and the Queen are happy together. Rumor has it they're even trying to have a baby of their own."

Keith felt an arm wrap around his waist and _oh_ , okay, that was enough to draw his attention away from the picture. He looked up at Lance and saw that he was smiling down at him, even though his eyes looked concerned.

"Let's go get some cupcakes. You look like you could use something sweet," Lance suggested.

"What's a cupcake?" Keith asked immediately.

Lance actually gasped. " _What_? You've never had a cupcake before?"

Keith shook his head.

"That's it. We're getting some _right now_. This is honestly a travesty, I can't believe—" Lance continued to rant about how deprived Keith was as he pulled him over to one of the vendors, Keith following along with an amused smile.

When Lance emerged from the vendor with two sweets in his hands (which looked like some kind of wrapped cake with sugary, colored topping on them, one blue and one red), Keith had to admit: he was interested.

He took the one with red topping from Lance, telling him that it was his favorite color.

"I can see that," Lance said while they walked to a more secluded part of the kingdom, away from all the people and, more importantly, the guards. "Red's a fiery color, you know, and you're." He laughed softly. " _Very_ fiery."

Keith rolled his eyes. "I think that's the first hair joke I've gotten. Though I'm honestly not surprised that it came from you."

"Um, what is that suppos—"

But Lance cut himself off, instead choosing to yank Keith into a small crevice between two of the buildings. Keith let out a disgruntled noise and nearly smushed his cupcake onto the ground, which he was about to tell Lance off for when he saw where Lance was gesturing to.

Two guards, walking where the two of them had just been.

Keith breathed a sigh of relief that Lance had been able to spot them and then turned to face him for the first time.

Automatically, he felt his stomach flip-flop at the sight.

Lance was... _so close_ , easily the closest he had ever been to him before. Their bodies were pressed against each other from the tight space and their faces were only inches apart.

Keith let out a shaky breath as his eyes made their way down Lance's face until he reached his lips, and then he lingered there, unable to help himself.

He wondered what kissing was like, but more specifically, what kissing _Lance_ was like. He looked back up to meet Lance's eyes and saw that he was blushing wildly, his breathing stuttering.

"So, um, cupcakes," Lance said, side-stepping out of the crevice. His voice came out raspy, so he cleared his throat before speaking again. "First you peel the paper off of the cake, like this, and then you just." He took a big bite from his cupcake.

Keith peeled the paper away, even though his mind was racing with thoughts. Why had Lance backed away? Did he not want to kiss him? If he didn't it was probably because he thought Keith was too naïve and stupid, just like Mother did.

Instead of taking a bite, Keith's tongue came out to swipe at some of the red stuff on the top of the cake, and he immediately let out a pleased noise once he did so. Whatever it was tasted amazing, all sugary and sweet.

Lance let out a noise of his own, but his sounded more like he was choking. Keith looked over at him and his eyes widened when he saw that Lance was blushing even deeper.

"What?" Keith asked, somewhat concerned but mostly just confused.

"Nothing, nothing," Lance said quickly, waving Keith's question away with his hand. "I'm fine, I'm good, I'm...I'm _perfect_ , actually, thanks for asking."

Keith narrowed his eyes at him. "You're being weird," he accused.

Lance gaped at him. " _What_? Me? Being weird? I am _not_."

Keith's tongue darted out again to get another taste of the sugary topping. Lance's eyes followed the motion, his mouth dropping open just slightly.

"Whatever you say," Keith said with a shrug, "This is good, by the way."

"I'm glad you're enjoying it," Lance choked out. "I thought, um, it could double as a birthday gift. On top of taking you here, that is."

Keith's eyes brightened as he looked up at Lance. He hadn't told him yet today that it was his birthday, which meant...

"You remembered," he said softly.

Lance snorted. "Of course I remembered. Isn't that why we're here? Because the lanterns happen every year on your birthday?"

" _Yes_ , but. You could have forgotten. I always have to remind Mother," Keith said nonchalantly.

"Well, I'm not her," Lance told him, and Keith would've had to've been deaf to not hear the animosity in Lance's voice towards her.

Normally that would have upset Keith, but he was shocked to find that he didn't really care this time. He was mostly just buzzing inside at the fact that Lance had remembered his birthday.

" _And_ , speaking of which, I thought we could check out the library while we're here. The kingdom has all kinds of nonfiction books, and I know you like reading and learning about new things, so I thought—"

"Yes," Keith said before Lance could even finish talking. "Yes, I would _love_ to do that."

Lance smiled at him. "Yeah?"

"Yeah," Keith agreed with a smile of his own. He felt like all he ever did was smile around Lance, but he didn't mind, _couldn't_ : not when he was the happiest he had ever been.

Lance made him happy.

"Lead the way," Keith told him, and then they were back to walking.

 

* * *

 

They ended up spending hours in the library. Lance supposed he shouldn't have been surprised, since he knew that Keith loved to read. As soon as they had arrived, Keith had been pulling out book after book from the nonfiction section and then curling up in a corner of the room with them. Lance had sat down next to him, reading over Keith's shoulder and answering any questions he had.

Keith had been absolutely delighted to find out that there was more than just one continent in the world.

"There's just so much out there," Keith had murmured, probably to himself, but Lance had still heard from how close he was sitting to him.

The words had reinforced the question that had been playing in Lance's mind for a while now.

How was he supposed to drop Keith off at the tower and never see him again? Lance's own personal feelings aside, it was clear that Keith loved being outside, loved exploring and learning new things. When he returned back to the tower, Lance knew Keith's mother wouldn't _ever_ let him leave again, and that...Lance wasn't okay with that.

But he knew Keith also loved his mother, and would probably freak out if Lance suggested not going back to her.

Lance tried to imagine himself having a plus one and it definitely wasn't a bad idea, considering Rolo and Nyma had both abandoned him, but...he didn't want to introduce Keith to the life of thieving and crime.

Maybe...maybe they could leave the kingdom, start a new life somewhere far away from here. He could cash in the money from the crown and...

" _Lance_."

Lance quickly looked up, jumping a little from having his thoughts interrupted. He knew it was more of a daydream than anything else: Keith would never agree to doing something like that.

Speaking of Keith, Lance saw that he was standing in front of him, all of the books he had taken out now put away.

 _Damn_. How long had Lance been out of it?

"I think I've done enough reading for today," Keith said with a smile that seemed almost shy. "You wanna go back outside?"

"Oh," Lance said, and stood up. "Yeah, sure. We could go get lunch."

Before they could leave, Keith grabbed onto one of Lance's biceps to stop him, his eyes wide and searching as he took in Lance's face.

"You okay?" He asked quietly, repeating the words that Lance himself had asked Keith multiple times.

Lance's heart clenched in his chest. He _wanted_ this, wanted Keith, but he didn't know if he could ever have him in the way that he wanted.

Still, he reminded himself, this whole thing wasn't about him. It was about Keith living out his dream.

Lance reached out so that his hand was on Keith's own bicep, his thumb brushing against the soft fabric of his gray shirt. He thought he heard Keith's breath hitch as his eyes followed the motion, but it was probably just Lance's imagination.

"Yeah, Keith, I'm good," he told him sincerely.

He gave his arm a brief squeeze and then walked out of the library, Keith following behind him.

 

* * *

 

They ate lunch in a relatively closed off area so that Lance could avoid being seen. However, this did _not_ mean that Lance couldn't still have some fun. He peeked over the wall he and Keith were leaning against and then elbowed Keith in the side.

"Watch this," he whispered to him.

Lance took one of the chips from his meal, peeked back over the wall, and then threw said chip at one of the guards on the other side of the street. He reeled Keith back in and tried to prevent himself from laughing when the guard's head spun all around, trying to see who had thrown the chip at him.

Keith smacked him in the chest in response, but it was clear that he was trying to hold back a smile of his own.

"You're going to get us caught," he hissed at him.

Lance leaned in a bit, a smug smile on his face. "C'mon, you thought that was _hilarious_."

"So you did that just to show off for me?" Keith asked, obviously feigning innocence.

"Wha — _what_? No!" Lance exclaimed, still gaping as Keith stood up to throw away the rest of his meal. "That's not what happened!"

Keith just laughed at him, and Lance glared as he walked past him, sure that his cheeks were starting to pink.

They continued to walk around the kingdom, exploring, until Lance started hearing little huffs of exasperation behind him.

He turned around, seeing that Keith had all the hair he could hold bunched up in his arms. Still, Lance could see that people were pretty much disregarding him, just narrowly avoiding stepping on his hair with their shoes. Lance grimaced in sympathy and leaned down to scoop up the remaining hair off of the pavement.

"This is ridiculous," Keith huffed out. "I never had to worry about my hair getting in the way when I was in the tower, but now with all of these people around..."

Lance pursed his lips as he tried to think about what to do. He looked around and his eyes met with three little girls sitting on the edge of a fountain, braiding each other's hair.

Lance smiled at the sight. _Perfect_.

"Follow me," he told Keith and walked him over to the little girls. Once they were both stood in front of the girls, Lance cleared his throat, and they all looked up at him.

However, their eyes quickly shifted to Keith, expressions akin to something like amazement as they took in all of the hair he possessed.

"Think you could help my friend out, here?" Lance asked, holding up the hair he had in his arms in reference.

Three quick nods and bright smiles as the girls had Keith sit down on the pavement, laying his hair out behind him in three, long sections. Each girl took a section, crossing them over the other, and Lance watched for a while before refocusing on making sure no guards noticed him.

He saw that Keith's pet chameleon (Lance really didn't know what the story was behind that. All he knew was that sometimes he caught Keith having full on conversations with the animal and like...Lance couldn't even judge him. The guy had been trapped in a tower for eighteen years. Of course he was a little loony.) was sitting right next to him, eyes focused on Keith.

"It must be nice," Lance said, and the chameleon looked up at him. She was...surprisingly humanlike in her actions and expressions. Maybe it was from being around Keith for so long. "You know, being able to blend into your surroundings. You wouldn't ever have to worry about being caught then."

The chameleon looked at him for a little, and it wasn't like Lance was expecting a response, but then he heard a voice in his head saying, _It has its perks_.

Lance nearly fell backwards into the fountain he'd been sitting on. What the fuck? What the _fuck_? First flaming, magical hair that could heal injuries, and now a chameleon that communicated telepathically?

At least Keith wasn't crazy, Lance thought, trying to comfort himself.

"Uh, so, you can talk," Lance said quietly. "That's...cool."

 _You're freaking out_.

"I am not!" Lance argued loudly, blushing when a couple of people walking past him gave him judging looks. "I am not," he repeated, quieter this time. "I've gone through a lot these past couple days. You gotta cut me some slack for how _well_ I've been handling this all."

The chameleon let out a sound that sounded like a chuckle and Lance shook his head, a small smile playing on his lips. He could see why Keith liked her so much. The two of them seemed to have similar personalities.

He felt a little nudge on his arm and he looked over at the animal, seeing that she was pointing excitedly to where Keith was. Lance's eyebrows furrowed and he quickly looked over to see what she was talking about and...oh.

Lance's mouth dropped open. His heart fluttered pathetically in his chest as his entire body filled up with... _some_ kind of emotion. It made him feel warm, and good, and he couldn't help the soft smile that formed on his face.

Because the sight he was met with was of Keith, doing a little spin to show off his braid to the little girls and then laughing when they all cheered for him. The braid came all the way down to his ankles, and the girls had woven red, white, orange, and yellow flowers into it.

He looked _beautiful_. The colors of the flowers made Lance think of the flames that could dance across Keith's hair, and he was suddenly reminded of the first time Keith had shown his hair to him. Lance had been absolutely awestruck by his beauty then, and right now clearly wasn't any different.

Keith looked over at him and smiled when he saw that Lance was already looking back at him, a light pink dusting his cheeks.

Before they could meet up again, music began playing in the town square, and Lance looked over, seeing that a couple of little kids were dancing together. A few adults were watching them but not joining in, probably too shy, which... _pffft_. Boring. Lance was going to make sure he changed that, castle guards be damned.

He held a finger up to Keith in a 'wait one minute' gesture and then hurried over to the town square, taking the hand of one of the women watching and spinning her around. She laughed joyously and Lance smiled at her before pairing her up with a man who had also been watching, the two easily swinging into step with the dance.

More kids came running over, including the three girls who had braided Keith's hair. They all danced in a circle together, back and forth, and Lance smiled happily at the sight.

The one couple Lance had paired together seemed to be enough for more adults to join in, as well. Lance watched as more and more couples came into the square, feeling his heart soar when he saw girls dancing with girls and boys dancing with boys, too.

He thought of Keith and made his way out from the middle of the square. He found Keith standing in the same place Lance had left him, watching the dancing scene with a small, hesitant smile.

That just _wouldn't do_.

Lance grabbed onto his hand and then he was practically running him over to the town square.

"Come on, I love this song!" He exclaimed enthusiastically.

"Wha — I don't...I don't know how to dance," Keith said from behind him.

Lance made his way back to the middle of the square and pulled Keith in close, his hand brushing against Keith's side until he was cupping his right shoulder blade. Keith placed his left arm on top of Lance's right and rested his hand on Lance's shoulder, staring up at Lance with wide, beautiful, purple-blue eyes.

"It's easy," Lance promised breathily, trying (and failing) to not get distracted by how close Keith was to him. "Just follow my lead, okay?"

Keith nodded at him and then Lance was leading them into the dance, Keith stepping forwards when Lance stepped back and so forth until they were moving along with the rhythm.

Keith let out a giggle, eyes shifting down to the ground, and Lance beamed at the sound, his entire face lighting up.

"What?" Lance asked him.

"I thought it would be more complicated than this," Keith admitted.

 _Oh_ , so Keith wanted to step things up a notch. Lance could _totally_ do that.

"We're just getting started, pretty boy," Lance told him with a smirk and removed his left hand from Keith's back, instead placing it in Keith's own so that both of their hands were joined together.

Keith stared up at him, waiting for him to make the first move, and then Lance was raising his left hand and wrapping Keith up so that he was pressed against Lance's right side. Their joined right hands were around Keith's waist, holding him there, and Lance continued to move his feet so that they could keep up with rhythm.

"Is this better?" Lance asked, turning to his side so that he was facing Keith.

Keith turned to look at him, too, and Lance felt his breath hitch in his throat, because he had seriously underestimated how close their faces would be.

Keith smirked. "It's alright," he teased him playfully.

Lance chuckled and then he was unwrapping Keith from him, immediately missing the closeness of his body pressed against Lance's side.

"Keep your hand locked with mine for this next one," Lance murmured, "Because if not I'll lose my balance and go flying into someone else."

"Tempting," Keith said, and Lance glared, even though he could feel Keith's grasp on his hand tighten. They stepped to the music for a few paces until Lance was spinning himself around with a dramatic flare, Keith holding him carefully in place.

"Now pull me back in," Lance told him. He expected Keith to wrap him up in his arms, but instead Keith quite literally pulled him in, his arms wrapping snugly around Lance's waist as Lance practically fell against his chest, holding on tightly to Keith's shoulders.

"Like that?" Keith asked, his hands splaying against the small of Lance's back.

And, okay, that obviously wasn't what Lance had meant, but he wasn't about to complain with how close their bodies were pressed together.

"We can work on it," Lance said, hating how high-pitched his voice came out.

"Okay," Keith agreed with a small smile, and then they just...kind of swayed.

Lance had meant to step away so he could continue teaching Keith new dance moves, but how could he when Keith was so close to him, holding onto him tight?

Keith didn't seem like he wanted to back away, either. His eyes were locked with Lance's own as they swayed, and it hit Lance, suddenly, how easy it would be to just lean in and kiss him.

The music blurred in Lance's ears. All he could hear was the slight hitch of Keith's breath as Lance slowly began to lean in, carefully watching Keith's face as he did. He wanted to make sure that he was okay with this, that he didn't feel like Lance was forcing him into anything, and his heart soared when Keith's eyes fluttered shut.

He was okay with this, Lance told himself. Keith wanted Lance to kiss him.

He was just about to lean in and close the final bit of space between them, his lips only a breath away from Keith's own, when the music abruptly stopped playing. Keith's eyes shot open and Lance quickly backed away from him, his arms hanging awkwardly in front of him.

"To the boats!" Someone yelled, and Lance watched as the townspeople began dispersing from the town square, making their way over to the boats.

He looked back over at Keith and saw that he was staring at the ground, purposely not meeting Lance's eyes.

Lance's stomach dropped. He hoped he hadn't ruined things between them by trying to kiss him.

"You ready for the moment you've been waiting for?" Lance asked, and Keith looked up at him, an anxious smile on his lips.

"I think so," he murmured.

Lance smiled back at him, wondering how it was possible to feel _so much_ for one person. "Well, let's go, then. I have the perfect boat for us."

 

* * *

 

"I really cannot believe you stole a boat."

"Hey!" Lance exclaimed. "I prefer the term _borrowed_."

Keith leveled him with an unimpressed look.

"Look, it'll totally be worth it! We're far away from any other people who might bother us, and the view will incredible from out here. I mean, look at it right now."

Keith looked over and saw that he could make out the entire castle. It was beautiful, and Keith knew the beauty would only increase as the lanterns were released into the sky.

Or at least...he hoped it would. Keith let out a deep sigh as he thought about it, his worries weighing down heavy on his shoulders. What if the lanterns didn't meet his expectations? What if he had wasted eighteen years of his life on a dream that wasn't even worth it?

"Hey," Lance whispered, and Keith glanced over at him, his face lit up by the two lanterns he was holding for them. "I thought you'd be feeling pretty excited right now. You're about to live out your dream."

Keith looked down at the water in front of him. "Excited?" He repeated quietly. "I'm...terrified. What if I don't even enjoy it? That's eighteen years of my life, looking out a window, wishing I was here, that I'll never get back."

Lance shook his head. "Trust me. You'll enjoy it."

"And if I do?" Keith asked, turning to look at Lance with wide, earnest eyes. "What do I do then?"

Lance looked surprised by the question. His mouth opened, and then closed, and then opened again.

"Then you get to choose a new dream," he told Keith, his voice laced with...with _something_. Keith wanted to ask him what it was but then he saw the first lantern being released into the sky, apparently by King Shiro and Queen Allura.

He quickly ran over to the edge of the rowboat, nearly tipping them over while doing so, and grasped on tightly to the mast so he could have a perfect view of the lights.

In no time at all, the entire kingdom was absolutely filled with the bright yellow glow of the lanterns. They reflected against the water as they floated into the dark night sky. Keith let out a happy sigh, leaning his head against the mast because...because it _was_ worth it. The sight of hundreds, maybe even thousands, of lanterns illuminating all of their surroundings was _breathtaking_.

He looked back at Lance to see what he thought and saw that he was still holding their two lanterns. He held them up when he saw Keith looking at him and Keith nodded, hurrying back over to him.

He sat back down in front of Lance, holding the lantern delicately in his hands when Lance handed it to him.

"Can we release them at the same time?" Keith asked.

Lance nodded. "On three, yeah?"

They both counted to three and then they were releasing their lanterns into the sky. Keith eyes followed them upwards, a wide, happy smile on his lips. He hadn't _ever_ felt this kind of happiness before in his entire life.

He looked back at Lance, who was absolutely glowing from the light of the lanterns, and felt himself grow warm all over when Lance reached out to cup one of his cheeks. Keith leaned into the touch, wondering if it was actually possible to have your heart beat out of your chest.

"Is—" Lance began to ask, and then cleared his throat. "Is this okay?"

Keith smiled. He was reminded of when they'd almost kissed in the town square, of how much he'd wanted to and then of the disappointment he'd felt afterwards when they hadn't been able to.

It was because of this that Keith leaned in just slightly, whispering, "More than."

That was all Lance needed to close the rest of the distance between them, their lips pressing carefully together. Keith let out a soft noise at the feeling, his eyes slipping closed. He didn't really know what he was doing, and he wasn't sure if he was just supposed to stay there with his mouth closed, but then Lance was tilting his head and opening his mouth, immediately deepening the kiss.

Keith's heart stuttered in his chest and he reached out, grasping onto Lance's shoulders in the hopes that he could keep him centered. He felt like he was floating like one of the lanterns in the sky, Lance's lips against his own making his head go fuzzy.

There was the feeling of something wet brushing against Keith's bottom lip, like a tongue, and he abruptly pulled away, face twisting in confusion.

"Sorry, sorry," Lance apologized quickly, "We don't have to—"

"No, it's okay," Keith said, not adding that it was _more_ than okay: it was _great_. "I liked it, but. Was your tongue supposed to be out?"

He watched Lance's eyes go wide and then his tanned cheeks were flushing as he let out a quiet curse.

"Um, yeah," he said, scratching awkwardly at his neck. "It's a part of kissing that makes it a bit more, uh, intimate."

"Oh, okay," Keith whispered, and then he was reaching out for Lance again, pulling him in by the shirt and sticking his tongue in his mouth.

Lance choked out a surprised noise and backed away, laughing brightly.

"Did I do it wrong?" Keith asked, his eyebrows furrowing in discouragement.

"No, not at all," Lance said, laughter still evident in his tone. "But usually...people are a bit more slow with it. Here, I'll show you."

He reached out so he was cupping Keith's jaw, brushing his thumb gently over the smooth skin there, before he was leaning in again. They kissed for a little while, closed mouth, until Keith once again felt the press of Lance's tongue against his bottom lip. He opened his mouth, figuring that was what he needed to do, and was rewarded by Lance's tongue slipping carefully into his mouth.

He moved his tongue against Keith's own and Keith breathed out a moan, wondering how it was possible to have shivers running down his spine when his entire body felt warm.

"Better?" Lance murmured in question, and Keith responded by pulling him again, their lips clashing heatedly together.

Lance pushed gently at one of Keith's shoulders and then Keith was lying with his back against the boat, Lance following him down with their lips still connected. Keith could feel everything with Lance's body on top of his, every hard muscle and soft angle, and it had his heart beating furiously.

He wondered if Lance could feel that, too...probably. Keith supposed he should have been embarrassed, but he couldn't find it in him when Lance's lips were very animatedly moving against his own, his body pressing Keith's own into the wood of the rowboat.

Keith wasn't sure how long they kissed for, but it was long enough for most of the lanterns around them to have either floated away or burned out. Still, there was enough light for them to make the other out, and when Lance finally pulled away, his eyes danced across Keith's face.

Keith probably looked a mess. Some of his hair had fallen out of his braid, and he was panting, and he _knew_ his cheeks had to be painted pink from how deeply he and Lance had been kissing.

But Lance didn't seem to be judging him. If anything, he looked like he was admiring him, which didn't make any sense to Keith.

"You are so beautiful," Lance whispered, like he couldn't quite believe it. Keith felt his cheeks grow even warmer. "I can't even...I can't even believe that you're real."

Keith's eyes went wide at the confession and he reached out for Lance's hands, holding onto both of them with his own.

Lance shifted so that he was lying next to Keith instead of on top of him, their bodies facing each other's with their joined hands between them.

"Look, Keith," Lance started quietly, "I...I've been wondering this for a while, but..." He trailed off, clearly nervous.

"You can ask me anything you want," Keith told him, wondering what could possibly have Lance this worked up.

"Are you going back to the tower after this?" Lance blurted out.

Keith's mouth opened in surprise. _Oh_. Lance had been wanting to ask him that for a while?

He thought about the question for a second before realizing there was truly nothing to think about.

He shook his head. "I haven't wanted to for a while now," he muttered, "But I don't know where else to go."

Lance immediately smiled, propping himself up on his shoulder so he was looking down at Keith.

" _Really_?" He breathed out, as if he wasn't quite sure if he should believe what he was hearing.

"Yeah, of course," Keith assured, a small, hesitant smile forming on his own lips.

"Run away with me, then," Lance said, his voice passionate and his expression dead serious. Keith eyes widened, because of all the things he'd been expecting Lance to say, that definitely hadn't been one of them. "We could leave the kingdom for somewhere I'm not, you know, a wanted criminal, and we wouldn't ever have to worry about money once I sell the crown."

Mother's words rang through his mind, as they had multiple times since she had said them to him. _This is what he really wants. Give him this and he's gone._

But...but here Lance was, going against everything Mother had told him to fill his head with doubts.

"That's what you'd want to do with the crown?" Keith asked cautiously.

Lance didn't even hesitate for a second before nodding his head. "Yeah, it is. We could stop at the tower and—"

"Actually," Keith interrupted and sat up, digging into his bag and pulling the crown out of it. "That won't be necessary."

Lance's eyes went wide as he sat up, too. "You've had it this entire time?" He asked.

Keith frowned slightly, ducking his head. "I'm sorry, I should have told you, but...I guess there was a voice inside my head telling me that you only cared about the crown and that you'd leave me as soon as you got it back."

Keith watched as Lance took the crown into his hands, hating himself for the way his heart still thudded anxiously at the sight, before Lance was stuffing it back into the bag. His hands came up to reach Keith's cheeks and Keith looked up at him, his anxiety quickly shifting into a warm feeling of relief.

"I care about _you_ ," Lance whispered, looking him straight in the eyes.

Keith flushed happily at the words, leaning into Lance's touch. "I care about you, too."

Lance began to lean in but then he stopped, squinting suspiciously at Keith. He was close enough to Keith's face that Keith had to go slightly cross-eyed just to see him.

"So is that a yes?" Lance inquired.

Keith threw his head back with a laugh and pushed at Lance's chest.

" _Yes_ , of course it's a yes!" He huffed out with a laugh, though he then quickly sobered to add, "There isn't anywhere I'd rather be."

Not even a second passed before Lance's lips were back on his, kissing him passionately, and Keith sighed into his mouth, thinking he could get used to this.

 

* * *

 

 

Lance could tell that Keith was beginning to get tired, despite how many times he covered his yawns with his hand and said he was "fine". It was because of this that Lance was rowing them back to shore, onto a small, sandy island that led back into the forest.

Once the boat was propped onto the sand, Lance laid back down, his back against the wooden boards and his hands on his chest as he stared up at the stars in the sky. He wasn't expecting Keith to curl into his side, his right arm wrapping around Lance's front as his head rested snugly in the crevice of Lance's shoulder.

Before Lance could even say anything, maybe tease him a little bit, he felt Keith's breath evening out against his neck in sleep. Pffft, yeah, not tired Lance's _ass_.

He tilted his head slightly so that he could look at Keith's sleeping face while also making sure that he didn't accidentally jolt him awake, and his own breath stuttered at the sight.

Keith's eyes were shut, which meant that his long, dark eyelashes fanned delicately across his cheeks, contrasting sharply with his pale skin. His mouth was opened the slightest bit as soft breaths left him, and Lance did a mental fist pump because thank _God_  that Keith didn't snore. He had really dodged a bullet there.

It hit Lance, as it had multiple times that day, just how _gone_ he was for Keith, and the craziest thing was that he got to have this. Keith wanted him back, wanted to run away with him, with _Lance_. Lance almost hadn't been able to believe it when Keith had told him so.

He thought that he'd been dreaming, maybe, but...no. This was real, _so_ real.

Reaching over with his free hand to softly tuck a stray piece of hair Keith's ear, Lance was about to close his own eyes and attempt to also get some sleep when he heard what sounded like someone stepping on and breaking a stick.

Instantly, Lance was in high alert mode. He pressed a gentle kiss to Keith's forehead before carefully untangling himself from him, going to see what had made that noise.

What worried him most was that it had sounded like a _who_ , not a what.

A tree from the forest had fallen onto the sand, probably from a bad storm, and Lance hopped over its trunk to see what was going on.

Almost as soon as he did, he was met with the sight of Rolo and Nyma standing right in front of him.

Lance's first instinct was to run, but he quickly shook that thought off. There was a chance that the two of them didn't know about Keith yet, and if Lance ran, that would be alerting them of his presence. He didn't want Keith getting involved in this, because it wasn't his fight.

"What're you guys doing here?" Lance asked, playing at nonchalance.

"We came for something of yours," Rolo said.

Lance blinked at the vague response. "Well, sorry, but I don't have the crown on me at the moment. You're gonna have to look someplace else, _compadres_."

"We didn't come for the stupid crown," Nyma hissed, and Lance's eyes widened in indignation.

"You weren't calling it stupid when you _tried to kill me for it_!" Lance exclaimed.

"Enough, both of you!" Rolo scolded. He then held up an all too familiar bag, gingerly taking the crown out of it. Lance's mouth gaped open because... _How_? "I think we'll let you keep this, Lance. Besides, I heard you found yourself something much, _much_ more valuable."

Lance hesitated for a moment, because what was Rolo even talking about, but then it hit him like a punch to the stomach.

 _Keith_.

He tried to run but his moment of hesitation had killed any chance he'd had of getting away. Rolo yanked him back in by the collar of his shirt and then held him in a death grip so that he couldn't get away.

Lance's next best bet was to scream out Keith's name, and he tried to, but Nyma was stuffing a gag into his mouth as soon as his mouth opened.

Still, he didn't give up. Even with the gag in his mouth, he screamed at the top of his lungs, feeling his throat practically give its own scream of protest. Lance didn't care: he just wanted Keith to hear him. If he woke up, then he'd hopefully have the sense to get a head start into the forest, away from Rolo and Nyma.

Lance wondered, briefly, how the two of them could even know about Keith's hair. The only people who knew about its magical qualities were Keith, Lance, and Keith's mother.

Unless...

But he never got to finish that thought.

Because Rolo was knocking him unconscious with a swift hit to the head, and then all he saw was black.

\---

Keith was awoken by the sound of a muffled screamed. He jolted upwards in shock, looking for Lance next to him, and felt his heart drop when he saw the other side of the boat was empty except for Red.

"Lance?" He called out shakily, before hurrying out of the boat and onto his feet. He squinted around the island, trying to spot him, but the night had grown unfortunately foggy since Keith had last been awake.

Slowly, a figure began to emerge from the fog, and Keith breathed a sigh of relief.

"Lance, I was so worried about you, I thought I heard a scream and..."

A second figure emerged from behind the first one and Keith's shoulders slumped, already beginning to back away because they _weren't Lance_. Where was he? Had they hurt him? Or worse, had they...?

 _No_ , Keith couldn't think like that. Not without feeling like his heart was going to claw its way out of his chest.

"Who are you?" He called out. "And where's Lance?"

The figures were close enough that Keith could see they were a man and a woman. The man was tall and bulky, and while the woman was just about as tall as him, she was much more wiry.

They looked...dangerous.

Before Keith even knew what he was doing, he took several small steps backwards, trying to get as far away from them as possible.

"I'm Nyma," the girl greeted, "And this is my brother, Rolo. Say hi, Rolo!"

"Hi," Rolo grunted.

"As for Lance..." Nyma trailed off with a soft laugh. "Well, Lance took off with the crown, sweetie."

Keith immediately shook his head, not believing her words for a minute.

"You're lying," he accused her, "I know Lance better than that, he said—"

"Lance says a lot of things," Nyma spat out, bitterness leaking out into her voice, "But he _always_ leaves in the end. You know he left me, too?"

Oh...was this Lance's ex-girlfriend? Keith supposed he wasn't too surprised. She was pretty, with long blonde hair that was pulled into a high ponytail and wide brown eyes. More importantly, she was probably just trying to sabotage he and Lance's relationship because she was jealous of them.

"Look, just because he left you doesn't mean he's going to leave me, too," Keith told her bluntly.

Nyma's mouth dropped open, and any attempt at friendliness she'd tried to show him quickly melted away at his words.

"If that's how it's going to be, then why don't you _look for yourself_?" She asked.

Her head jerked to the left, towards the water, and Keith's eyes cautiously followed the motion.

The fog made it difficult to see anything too distinctly, but Keith could clearly see a sailboat in the water, as well as a body steering it. The person steering had a bag hanging from one of their arms: the bag the crown was in.

"Lance?" Keith whispered quietly, squinting to see if he could make him out any better. He saw the blue of Lance's vest and he took a step backwards in shock, choking out a gasp of surprise.

But...but Lance had seemed so genuine, so _earnest_ , how...how could he just leave him like this?

"What's a matter?" Nyma's voice cut through his thoughts. "Baby's first heartbreak?"

Keith tore his eyes away from the ship so that he was facing the two of them again, not even wanting to know how heartbroken he must have looked.

Had it been obvious that Lance was playing him along this entire time? After all, Mother had seemed pretty sure that Keith would only get his heart broken.

Maybe Keith really was too innocent, too naïve.

"What are you guys still doing here, then?" Keith asked thickly. "Come to rub it in?"

"Actually," Rolo said, "Lance let us in on a little secret of yours before he left. See, we would've been happy to settle with just the crown, but he let us know that you had something _much_ more valuable than that."

Keith's eyes went wide, his body stalk-still in horror. No, _no_ , it couldn't be...

"How much do you think hair with magical healing qualities and anti-aging abilities would sell for, sis?" Rolo mused.

"Hm, I don't know," Nyma responded, a cruel smirk curling on her lips. "Why don't we find out?"

Keith was in a state of complete and total shock. He couldn't accept that Lance would just completely and utterly betray him like that, all for a stupid _crown_. Keith had opened up to him, told him his deepest, darkest secret, and Lance had responded by practically leaving him to live out his worst nightmare.

He saw that Rolo and Nyma were advancing on him and he knew, despite how much pain he was in, that now wasn't the time to be wrapped up in his emotions. He had to protect himself and his powers.

Looking behind him for anything that might double as a suitable weapon, he found a broken tree branch about the height of a wooden baseball bat and a little bit thicker. He quickly picked it up, holding it as one would hold a sword.

"There's no use fighting, Keith," Rolo said. "You couldn't ever go up against one of us."

Keith clenched his jaw, trying to stuff down his fear and hurt in favor of channeling his anger.

" _Try me_ ," he gritted out.

Rolo smirked. "What do you say, sis?" He asked. "Wanna give it a try?"

"Sure," she said, but then pointed at the branch still tightly grasped in Keith's hand. "But get rid of that thing. I want to do this _mano a mano_."

"How do I know you don't secretly have a knife or a gun or something?" Keith fretted.

Nyma shrugged. "I guess you don't."

Keith let out a steady breath before tossing the branch somewhere into the forest. Hand-to-hand. He could do hand-to-hand. Mother had given him plenty of self-defense lessons in case he ever found himself in a situation like this, but...well. This was his first time actually testing it out in practice and not just in theory.

Nyma ran over to him and quickly grabbed onto his shoulders so she could jam her knee into his stomach, nearly knocking the breath out of his lungs.

"Oh, this is going to be easy," she cooed, but she must have miscalculated how long it would take for Keith to recover because she didn't immediately try to move away from him, giving Keith enough time to return the move back to her.

Nyma stumbled backwards as soon as Keith's knee collided with her stomach, choking out a gasp of surprise.

"You little bitch," she hissed, and her fist flew towards him for a direct hit to his face.

Keith blocked it, though it didn't really matter much, because then Nyma was attempting punch after punch at him. He managed to block all of them and even managed to catch one of Nyma's wrists in his hand, both of their eyes meeting when he did.

Keith couldn't help it: he hesitated. He didn't know what to do. Did he flip her over? He didn't even know if he was strong enough for that...

Nyma made the choice for him. She landed a punch to Keith's face with her free hand and Keith automatically let go of her captured hand, his hand coming up to his nose to see if it was bleeding.

It wasn't. Keith kind of wanted to keep it that way, and another punch would definitely break skin.

An overwhelming feeling of worry overcame him suddenly. What would happen if he kept fighting? Would Nyma keep kicking the crap out of him until he was a bloodied and beaten pulp on the ground? And even if Keith somehow managed to win whatever it was they were playing at, there was _no way_ he could even try to go up against Rolo.

He felt like he was simply delaying the inevitable.

Nyma must have been able to tell that he was distracted because she went for a heavy kick to Keith's stomach, long leg all the way outstretched, and Keith...Keith caught it, right at the last moment.

Nyma let out a furious huff and attempted to free herself, but Keith had learned from last time not to hesitate in deciding a countermove. He used his hands around Nyma's leg to push her backwards and she didn't even stumble before losing her footing, falling flat on her back.

Keith quickly went down with her, attempting to pin her body underneath of his, but she recovered too quickly for him to do so. Her head flew forward into Keith's own and he let out a loud groan at the immediate pain that flooded his head. He moved off of Nyma's body and onto the grass, stomach-first, and Nyma wasted no time in pinning him down.

"You know, you're _fiery_ ," Nyma murmured in his ear. "I bet that's why Lance liked you so much."

At the name, Keith felt all of his anger return to him tenfold. He snarled and before he even knew what he was doing, the sharp part of his elbow was jamming Nyma right in the throat.

Nyma let out a choked noise and moved off of him, both of her hands going to her throat.

Keith stood up quickly, staring at her in concern. Was she seriously hurt? Had Keith _hurt her_? She had been about to hurt him so it was okay, right?

...Right?

Keith remembered how he couldn't even look at the two guys fighting each other when he was with Lance at the Snuggly Duckling. Now _he_ was the one doing the fighting.

He felt like he was going to be sick.

"That's _enough_ ," Rolo growled, rolling his sleeves up. "I'll take care of you myself."

He stalked towards him and Keith stood, frozen, unsure of what to do next. He could try to find the branch again and use it as a bat, but Rolo looked like the type who was strong enough to just...punch right through the wood.

Keith squeezed his eyes closed, not wanting to see Rolo's fist colliding with his face even though he knew he was _definitely_ going to feel it.

But the punch never came.

Instead, there was the sound of a loud thud, and Keith quickly opened his eyes to see what had happened. He watched as Rolo's body connected with one of the tree trunks from the forest and then fell to the ground, limp.

Keith wondered for a second if he had more magical abilities other than just his hair, but then he saw the hot pink glow of magic surrounding Rolo.

 _Mother_.

Keith had been through so much today, felt so many emotions, that he honestly didn't know what he felt as she emerged from the forest. She ran over to him, her hand on his face as she assessed the damage.

"Oh, my baby, I am so _glad_ I was able to find you," she cried, her eyes going teary.

And Keith...Keith just broke. The emotions he had been holding in during the fight burst out of him as he choked out a sob, not even fighting it when Mother wrapped him up in her arms.

It felt good to be back in her arms. Familiar. Keith could use some familiarity in his life right now.

"I do hate being right sometimes," she whispered as she stroked at his hair. "I hope you know it isn't easy for me to see you like this."

"I know, Mother," he told her numbly.

"Let's go home, then," Mother said, and before Keith could so much as utter another word, she was transporting them back to the tower.

 

* * *

 

When Lance came to the next morning, he saw that his hands had been tied to the mast of a sailboat and he had somehow sailed right over to the castle. The bag with the crown in it was hanging off of one of his arms.

Everything that had happened before he'd been knocked out came rushing back to him: Rolo and Nyma capturing him, threatening Keith because they somehow knew about his hair...Keith.

 _Keith_.

Where was he? Had he heard Lance screaming and been able to escape from Rolo and Nyma?

"Keith!" He yelled out, trying and failing to pull himself free from the bounds on his wrist. " _Keith_."

He knew, logically, that Keith couldn't hear him. But...but maybe he had rowed back to the castle, maybe he was nearby...

The person who found him wasn't Keith. It was a castle guard, dressed in red, white, and gold armor.

"Well, look who it is," he said, pulling Lance up out of the boat and onto the ground. He then called another guard over to help hold him back when Lance tried to squirm out of his grasp.

"No, please," Lance pleaded, "You don't understand, I have to get to him—"

"Save it, McClain," the guard told him harshly, "You're not getting out of this one."

Lance cast a desperate look over his shoulder before looking back in front of him.

"Listen, there's someone who could be in trouble, if you would just—"

"Enough!" The other guard yelled. "This is the end of the line for you, McClain. We're not falling for any more of your tricks."

Lance's shoulders sagged at the words. So, this was really it. He'd figured that he had committed enough crimes and escaped prison enough times that there was no way he'd just be locked up in prison again, but the guards' words confirmed this.

He was going to be hanged, and it was probably going to be soon.

The thing was, for the first time in his life, Lance didn't want to break free for himself. He thought of Rolo and Nyma possibly capturing Keith, of hurting him or taking advantage of his powers, and he...he wanted to break free for him. Lance _had_ to find him and make sure that he was okay.

Keith had trusted him to keep him safe, and Lance didn't plan on breaking that trust.

As the guards walked him down to the lower level, to the prison, Lance thought out his plan of escape. He really didn't have too many options, considering his hands were bound by rope, but...his elbows and legs were still pretty much free.

The three of them passed a cell with two familiar faces in it and Lance did a double take, his mouth dropping open slightly in surprise.

It was Nyma and Rolo. Nyma had a nasty looking bruise on her throat and Rolo just looked...bad. Lance definitely hadn't been expecting them to be here, but since they were, then where was Keith?

He figured now was a good a time as any to attempt his escape plan. He needed answers, answers that Rolo and Nyma most likely had.

Lance shoved his shoulder roughly into the guard on his right, using enough force behind the blow that the guard was knocked into one of the brick walls surrounding the cells. He slumped against it, clearly unconscious, and Lance focused on the guard to his left. He tried to land a punch but Lance dodged it, slamming his head against the guard's own. It hurt, but it clearly hurt the guard more, as he fell backwards, eyes closed.

Lance didn't waste any time in grabbing against the bars of Rolo and Nyma's cell.

"Where is he?" He grit out frantically. "And how did you know about his powers?"

"It was the lady, the old lady, she said she was going to help us out but then she double-crossed us and—" Rolo said, but Lance toned the rest of his words out.

The old lady...Keith's mother? But if she had gone through all of this trouble just to get Keith back then...

Then that meant that Keith was almost certainly in trouble. He knew Keith no longer had any desire to be holed up in the tower, and that was probably exactly what his mother planned on doing to him.

Lance abruptly let go of the cell's bars and took off into a sprint, running as fast as his legs could take him. He had to get to Keith, he had to save him. After all, Lance was the only person who possibly could. No one else even knew about the tower.

He had purposely paid close attention to where the guards had taken him so that he would know the way back outside of the castle. He had almost made it to the steps leading outside when all of a sudden a dozen guards were running down them, on their way to the prison.

Lance ducked behind one of the walls, flattening his body against it as much as he could so that they couldn't see him. He then brought his hands up to his mouth so he could pull one of the strands of rope looser with his teeth before moving his wrists wildly back and forth, eventually wriggling his hands free of them.

The rope dropped to the floor, and Lance used one of his now free hands to cover his mouth, holding back his pants from running such a long distance in such a short time.

He watched as the guards ran right past him and towards the prison to see what had happened, their eyes all trained straight ahead.

Lance breathed a quiet sigh of relief and then he took off running again, making his way up the steps.

"Hey! There he is!" He heard a guard yell, and he turned around, seeing that said guard was far enough away from him that Lance didn't _really_ have to worry.

Still, the guards had been alerted of his presence, which meant that Lance needed to get out of here. _Now_.

He heard one of the guards yelling to bar off the main exit, but Lance got there as soon as one of the guards attempted baring it off. He clearly hadn't been expecting Lance, because Lance was able to land a direct hit to his face, and then kicked him in the stomach so he fell straight through the wooden door, insuring that it would be left open.

Perfect.

Lance pushed into the body shaped hole he had created and continued to run. He had made it outside of the castle, but clearly the hard part of escaping was still ahead of him. There were guards coming from both his left and right, as well as behind him. The only way they weren't coming was from straight ahead, so Lance could keep running, but there was no way he'd be able to outrun them all before they closed in.

His eyes darted back and forth, taking in his surroundings, and his mouth moved up into a small smirk when he saw a white palace horse, unguarded. It had a blue saddle and blue bridle already on it, and it was right ahead of Lance.

He picked up the pace, running over to the horse, and hopped onto its saddle.

"Let's go!" He yelled, giving its bridle a sharp tug.

To his surprise (and frustration), the horse tried to kick him off with an angry whinny.

"No, no, _please_ ," he pleaded desperately, giving the horse a small pat on the neck to try and bond with it or...or _something_. He wasn't about to let Keith remained trapped forever because of a stubborn horse. "I'm trying to get to someone very dear to me, I think they're in trouble and you're the only way I can get to them."

The horse's neck whipped around to look at him, and he must have looked pretty desperate, because the horse let out what sounded like a huff and then started running full speed out of the kingdom.

Lance laughed happily, almost unable to believe it as he held onto the horse's reigns.

" _Thank you_ ," he whispered to the horse, and then glanced behind him.

The guards were already a good distance behind him, but he thought he could hear them yelling and cursing.

Lance had escaped, and he was going to save Keith.

 

* * *

 

"There," Mother said, pulling the last flower out of his hair, "It's like none of this ever happened."

Keith continued to stare at his hands in his lap, letting out a soft sigh. Sure, he might not've had any physical reminders of his trip, but the memories were still ever present. It seemed like they were the only things his mind could focus on, no matter how painful they were for him.

"I really did try to warn you, Keith," Mother told him, standing up from where she'd been sitting with him on his bed. "The world is a dark, dark place. People like you just aren't cut out for it."

Keith squeezed his eyes shut tight. Every time she had told him that in the past, he'd wanted to prove her wrong. Turned out, she'd been right this entire time.

She made to walk out of the room, but Keith stopped her with a "Wait!"

She turned around to face him, lingering in the doorway.

"Do you think Nyma was okay? I didn't...I didn't hurt her too bad, did I?" Keith asked her.

Mother shook her head. "She's probably just going to have a nasty bruise, although with what she did to you she deserved—"

"And Rolo?" Keith asked, cutting her off. "Did you..."

"No," Mother responded with a sigh, "I had half a mind to, when I saw him coming near you, but I didn't kill him."

Keith nodded, letting out a breath of relief. He knew they had threatened him, had intended to hurt him, but he still hadn't wanted them to get hurt on his behalf.

"I'll be fixing breakfast if you need me," Mother told him, and left the room.

Keith stared at the place she had been for a few seconds before lying back on his bed, body above the sheets. Now that he knew about Rolo and Nyma not being hurt, he couldn't prevent the way his mind immediately went to Lance.

He still didn't want to believe, _couldn't_ , that Lance had just left him of his own freewill. Call him stupid, or naïve, but they had _something_ , and Keith wasn't willing to let that something go yet.

He thought back to when he had first met Rolo and Nyma, when they had told him that Lance had left him. It had been foggy, but Keith was almost certain that the body inside of the boat had been Lance's. He then went over the words they had told him about Lance leaving. He'd taken the crown, that was a given, and he'd apparently told the two of them about Keith's hair. Rolo had said that Lance had told him that his hair had healing qualities and anti-aging abilities, which...

Keith abruptly sat up. His breath caught in his throat.

Lance hadn't known that his hair could grant immortality. He'd known about the healing qualities, and that it could catch on fire, but Keith hadn't told him the rest. The only other person who knew about the anti-aging abilities was...

Keith stared back at the place Mother had just been standing. His hands were shaking, because she was the _only one_ who had known, and if Lance hadn't been the one to rat Keith out, then...then that meant Mother was.

And what _that_ meant, was that Lance might not have left him of his own freewill.

Keith couldn't help it: he had to know the truth. He stood up and all but ran down the stairs, ignoring Red's questions of where he was going. Once he was at the bottom of the steps, he saw Mother by the stove, cooking breakfast as she had said she would.

"What's the matter, darling?" She asked him sweetly.

The pet name and sickeningly sweet tone of her voice made Keith's stomach curl.

"You were teamed up with Rolo and Nyma," he said, his voice surprisingly steady for how shaky he felt. "They thought you were going to let them in on my powers, but you double-crossed them so you could have me all to yourself."

Mother let out a scoff, not even looking up from the frying pan she was cooking eggs on. "Don't be absurd, Keith. Are you even listening to yourself?"

"Yes, I am, and I know that I'm right." Mother finally turned around to face him, probably hearing from his voice that he wasn't playing around. "They told me that Lance told them about my hair granting immortality, but I never told him that. The only person who could have known that was you."

"The fact that you would question your own mother like this is—"

"Are you?" Keith asked promptly, and Mother's eyes went wide. "Are you even my mother? Because there's really not much of a resemblance between us." He thought back to the mural of the royal family he'd seen in the kingdom, of the Queen's purple eyes, matching the baby prince's and Keith's own. He thought of the unexplainable remorse he'd felt when Lance had told him the King and Queen had both died, and he'd pushed away the question on the tip of his tongue then, but now...

"I resemble the dead Queen more than I resemble you," he said, and there was no going back now.

Mother's mouth was closed, her jaw clenched tight with anger, and it was because of her lack of response that Keith continued to talk.

"Is it me?" He asked. "Am I the lost prince? Because Lance told me he would've been eighteen now, and I saw a picture of him when he was a baby, and he _looked like me_ , the entire royal family did..."

"So what if you are?" Mother burst out suddenly. " _I_ raised you, _I_ took care of you, you are in every sense of the word _my_ son!"

Keith stumbled back at the words. He'd been expecting Mother to immediately deny it, but...but she hadn't. Keith was the lost prince. His real parents were dead, and his brother was the current King.

He felt like he was either going to cry or get sick from the shock of it all. Possibly both.

"All of my life," Keith started, swallowing thickly. "I was scared of someone taking me away and using me for my powers, but that's exactly what you've been doing all of this time. For _eighteen years_ of my life!"

"You don't understand," Mother said desperately, "There was a war, I was _protecting_ you, and—"

"I don't want to hear it!" Keith yelled, feeling the angry tears flow down his cheeks. "I can't even look at you anymore without thinking of the life I could have, of the life you _stole from me_."

Mother pointed a finger at him. "Don't you _ever_ say that, I gave you a great life!"

"One that I didn't ask for," Keith told her, and shook his head. "I can't be here anymore."

"Oh yeah?" Mother asked. "And where, pray tell, will you go?"

Keith's mouth started to form the word Lance and Mother shook her head at him, her lips moving upwards into a cruel smirk.

"What did you do to him?" Keith choked out, his heart beating frantically in concern.

"The criminal is to be hanged in the morning for his many, many crimes," Mother recited, "It's possible that he already has been."

"No!" Keith cried, his eyes darting to the open window. "I have to get to him, if I tell King Shiro that I'm the lost prince he'll cancel the hanging and—"

Mother threw her head back and laughed at him. "I already told you, dear," she said, her voice disturbingly calm. "You weren't made to survive in this world."

"No," Keith denied, finally speaking out against her. "You were wrong about me. I stopped a bar fight, I prevented Lance and I from dying in a collapsing cave, and I defended myself against Nyma. I'm not the helpless little thing you've made me out to be my entire life."

"None of that matters. You are not _ever_ leaving this tower," Mother told him, her voice low and menacing.

" _Watch me_ ," Keith said in the same tone.

Mother tried to reach out for him but Keith shoved her back with all of his might, watching as she went crashing backwards into Keith's full length mirror, the broken glass shattering everywhere. Keith hadn't meant for that to happen and he immediately felt bad, so he hurried over to her and offered her his hand.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean—" He started, but then Mother was pulling herself up and spinning Keith around so that his back was to her chest. Keith felt something cold press against his throat and his breathing stuttered when he looked down and saw that she was holding a dagger against the skin of his throat.

"I told you that you're not going anywhere," she whispered into his ear, "So either you listen to me about what we're going to do next, or you make this much more unnecessarily painful for yourself."

Keith squeezed his eyes shut, praying a silent prayer to whoever who would listen that Lance somehow managed to escape from prison himself, for Lance's own sake.

Because it seemed that Keith truly never would be leaving this tower again.

 

* * *

 

The previously sunny day had turned cloudy and grim by the time Lance arrived to the tower. He hopped off of Blue (he had nicknamed her that from her blue saddle and bridle, and she hadn't seemed to mind) and gave her a quick pet.

"I'll be back soon," he told her, "Hopefully with Keith."

Her head moved up in what almost seemed like a nod and Lance smiled at her before running over to the tower.

"Keith!" He called out, both of his hands splaying against the tower. "Keith, if you can hear me, it's Lance!"

Still no response. Lance had escaped dozens of castle guards and stolen a horse, he was _not_ about to just give up like this.

He attempted to climb up the tower with just his bare hands and his boots, but as soon as he did, long black hair came sprawling down the tower's walls.

Lance breathed out a deep sigh of relief and didn't waste any time starting the climb upwards. Keith was okay, he was alive, and Lance was going to save him. He was going to take him far, far away from this godawful tower, too.

Once Lance pulled himself into the tower's window, he couldn't help gushing out, "God, _Keith_ , I thought I'd never see you again..."

But then he actually looked at him and his relief flowed right out of him. Keith was chained up against one of the walls, his mouth being gagged by a white piece of cloth. He was feverishly shaking his head, back and forth, shouting what sounded like Lance's name from behind the gag.

Before Lance could go over to him and try to free him, he felt something sharp and cold piercing against his stomach. He looked down to see a dagger sticking inside of him, and as soon as it was out, he was falling to the ground. He grasped at his stomach with a pained noise, watching as his hands reddened with his own blood.

He could hear Keith full on screaming now, pulling desperately at his chains to try and get over to him.

"Don't worry, Keith," a woman's voice said, as she stepped over Lance's fallen body. "Your secret will die with him."

Lance looked up at her, even though his vision was beginning to black around the edges. She had curly black hair that had tints of grayish-white to it, and she was dressed in a long black cloak.

"Now come on, Keith. It's time we got going," she told him.

"No," Lance rasped out, and saw that Keith had thrashed around against his chains enough that his gag had fallen down off of his mouth.

"No," Keith repeated, looking over at Lance with wide, desperate eyes. Lance tried to smile at him, but he was pretty sure it came out more as a wince, and Keith let out a whimper in response. "No," he said, focusing back on his mother. "If you take me away right now, I'll never stop fighting. I'll spend every day of the rest of my life trying to get away from you. But if you let me heal Lance first, I won't ever put up a fight again. I'll spend forever with you, like you wanted."

Lance shook his head. "No, _no_ , Keith, you can't—"

Keith glared at him without any real heat to it. "I'm trying to save your life, you idiot," he hissed.

It hurt to speak, so Lance kept his words to himself, but he wanted to tell Keith that he couldn't do this. He couldn't spend the rest of his life, _forever_ , trapped up inside of a tower. He loved the world too much and, Lance thought to himself, he loved _him_ too much to let Keith make that kind of sacrifice for him.

He made sure neither Keith nor his mother were looking as he grabbed a long shard of broken glass from the floor next to him, hiding it behind his back when Keith hurried over to him.

Keith took his face in his hands, his beautiful purple eyes wide and teary as they took in Lance's grimacing face.

"I'm going to fix this," he promised Lance, his voice quiet. He helped move Lance so that his back was propped up against one of the walls, which Lance supposed would make healing him easier.

"You can't do this," Lance pleaded, and was met with a stubborn, determined look from Keith.

"I have to do this," Keith whispered, "If I don't, you'll die."

"So will you," Lance responded quietly, and Keith's face fell in understanding. Lance knew that Keith couldn't be trapped inside of a tower for the rest of his life, he was too curious, and doing so would slowly kill him on the inside.

Still, Keith shook his head, once again taking one of Lance's cheeks in his hand when Lance let out a hoarse cough.

"This is worth it to me," Keith told him boldly, " _You_ are worth it to me. I can't...I _can't_ let you die."

His hands came out to unbutton Lance's vest and then his shirt, biting down harshly on his bottom lip when he assessed the damage. Lance could feel that he had lost a lot of blood, and all it would take was just a little more for his body to give up.

"You know," Lance started, and heaved out a breath before continuing again, "This wasn't how I expected your first time undressing me to go," he said, quiet enough for just him and Keith to hear.

He had wanted to make Keith laugh, but instead he choked back what sounded like a sob.

" _Don't_ ," he pleaded, and attempted to wrap his hair around Lance's wound.

Lance took his hand in his, stopping him from doing so. "Keith," he murmured, knowing he was running out of time. He had to do this now, or else he might not ever get the chance. "C'mere."

Keith must have thought that Lance was asking for a kiss because his eyes fluttered closed as he leaned slightly forward, and Lance used the opportunity to also lean in, the hand with the shard of glass in it coming forward so he could slice Keith's hair off in one clean swipe. It now rested just above his shoulder and he watched as Keith's eyes flew open, his hands coming up to his hair.

"No," he gasped out, " _No_ , Lance, _what did you do_ —"

"I saved you," Lance said with a small, hazy smile. "That's why I came here, and I — and I did it."

Before either of them could say another word, they both watched as Keith's mother let out an agonized scream, trying to hold onto Keith's dead hair in the hopes that it would still work. Her black hair rapidly changed back to white and Lance grimaced as her skin became wrinkly and papery thin.

She began stumbling, and Keith tried to hold his hand out to her, but they could both only watch in horror as she tripped on some of Keith's stray hair and fell out of the window.

"Mother!" Keith yelled, going to the window to try and help her, but Lance could tell it was no use from the look on his face when he turned back around.

"She's gone," he murmured.

Lance couldn't stay propped up anymore, so he laid down on his back, his eyes slipping closed. It felt good, right, to give into the blackness surrounding him, but then there was a sharp slap hitting him across the cheek.

Lance's eyes flew back open and he let out a surprised wheeze. "What the _fuck_ —"

"You are not leaving me," Keith told him angrily, both of his hands grabbing onto Lance's own and squeezing. "You're going to — you're going to _stay with me_."

Lance opened his mouth to respond, but then Keith was rushing through his healing song, opening and closing his eyes to see if anything was happening.

When he realized it wasn't, his entire face fell, his bottom lip wobbling.

"It wasn't supposed to be like this," he cried, "We were supposed to run away together. I wanted...I wanted to run away with you."

Lance smiled sadly, giving Keith's hands a squeeze with all of the strength he could muster, which admittedly wasn't a lot.

"Keith," he whispered, and Keith leaned in close to listen, a hand coming to one of Lance's cheeks and gently stroking the skin there.

"You were...you were my new dream," Lance admitted, and the small, shaky smile Keith gave him was the last thing he saw before his eyes slipped shut.

He thought he heard Keith's voice say, "And you were mine," before Lance's entire world faded to black.

 

* * *

 

 

 

"Lance! Lance, no, _please_ ," Keith called out, trying to shake him awake, but he knew it was no use. Lance's skin was cold to the touch, and he was pale as a sheet. His grip on Keith's hands had slackened and Keith hesitantly let go of his hands, his throat clenching from holding back sobs as he did so.

"You self-sacrificing idiot," he hissed out, even though he knew Lance couldn't hear him. "That wasn't your decision to make, and I — I want to be mad but I..."

He trailed off, one of his hands grasping at Lance's shirt as his head came down to rest on Lance's chest, letting out the heavy sobs that he'd been trying hard to contain. They wrecked his body, but Keith couldn't help it, because it was supposed to be the two of them, Keith and Lance, but now...now Lance was _gone_.

"Flower burn and glow," Keith started softly, interrupted as a sob ripped itself out of his throat, "Let your power shine. Make the clock reverse, bring back what once was mine. Heal what has been hurt. Change the Fates' design. Save what has been lost. Bring back what once was mine..." Keith hesitated, staring at Lance's face and remembering all of the times Lance had smiled softly at him, eyes shining. Now his eyes remained closed.

"What once was mine," he finished hopelessly, speaking the words more than singing them.

His head fell back to Lance's chest, the tears flowing steadily from his eyes now. They hit softly against Lance's chest, where Keith imagined his heart was.

He was interrupted from his crying when he felt warmth start to grow against his cheek. He quickly opened his eyes, and he gaped at the sight that he was met with.

The skin where Lance's heart was was glowing a radiant yellow, as was the skin where Lance's wound was. Keith abruptly pulled his shirt open to look at the wound, gasping when he saw the imprint of a bright yellow flower in place of the wound, which had healed right up.

Keith hadn't ever heard of a flower being tied into his powers, but he knew it had to be because of them. After all, the healing incantation he always sang started off with a flower.

"Lance?" He asked quietly, trying not to get his hopes too far up but knowing that they already were.

Lance's eyes fluttered open as his mouth parted with a soft breath. "Keith?" He asked, and Keith couldn't help it.

He threw his arms around his neck, pulling Lance against his chest as he hugged him tightly. Lance huffed out a small laugh before hugging him back just as tightly, and they stayed just like for a long while, holding onto each other in disbelief.

Lance was the one to pull away, and when he did, one of his hands came out to run through Keith's now short hair. His eyes were locked intensely with Keith's own and Keith smiled, leaning into his touch.

"What do you think?" He asked him.

Lance pursed his lips as if he were thinking about it, his fingers twisting in the long strands of hair on Keith's neck in a way that had him shivering.

"I really liked the long hair," Lance admitted, "Though I suppose the mullet isn't bad, either."

The moment was immediately broken. Keith's mouth dropped open in indignation and he slapped at Lance's chest, who started laughing as he fell back on his arms.

"I do _not_ have a mullet!" Keith yelled in indignation, and Lance just laughed harder, throwing his head back. Keith watched the sight and felt his heart do a happy little dance in his chest because...because Lance was back. He was going to be okay.

Keith leaned in so his body was on top of Lance's and Lance's face quickly sobered, staring up at Keith with searching blue eyes when both of his hands reached out to cup Lance's cheeks.

"I'm," Keith started, his lips moving into a wide smile, "I'm _really glad_ you're alright. I was terrified that I was going to lose you."

Lance placed his hands over Keith's own. "I'm glad, too," he whispered.

Keith breathed a happy sigh before closing the rest of the distance between them, their lips locking together in a passionate kiss.

Keith hadn't thought that he'd ever be able to do this again, but _god_ was he glad to be wrong. He wasn't sure how much time passed of the two of them just kissing, reveling in the fact that they could do this, that they were both safe and alive, but it felt like hours when Keith eventually pulled away.

"I forgot to tell you," Keith said, his voice slightly breathy from all of the kissing, "I figured something out about myself while you were gone."

Lance raised an inquisitive eyebrow at him. "Oh yeah? What's that?"

Keith smiled down at him. "I'm the lost prince."

"You're _what_?!"

 

* * *

 

"I _really_ don't think it's a good idea for me to come along. I mean, they tried to _hang me_ , Keith."

Keith leveled Lance with an exasperated look. They were just outside of the kingdom, and they had been having this same argument for what felt like centuries.

"I _told_ you," Keith huffed out, "If I let them know that I'm the lost prince, they're not going to take you away and imprison you. I'll make sure of it."

Lance narrowed his eyes at him before throwing his hands up in resignation. "Fine, _fine_ , but when I end up with a noose around my—"

"Lance!" Keith yelled. "Please don't talk like that. Not after everything that happened."

Lance grimaced. "Sorry, sorry, I'm just...nervous."

Keith gave a small smile, taking one of Lance's hand in his own. "Me too," he said, "But we'll figure this out. Together."

He leaned in for a short kiss before leading him across the bridge into the kingdom.

Once they had made it to the castle, the multiple guards standing guard in front of it were immediately on the defense.

"McClain," one of them growled, but Keith held his hand protectively out in front of Lance, shaking his head.

"It's okay," Keith said, "He's with me."

The guards seemed unimpressed. "And you are?"

Keith let out a nervous breath. "I'm the lost prince."

Keith and Lance both watched as some of the guards immediately dropped their weapons, along with some of their jaws.

"How — how do we know for sure?" One of them asked, and Keith shook his head with a small smug.

"I don't know how to prove myself to you guys," Keith admitted, "But if you let me meet with King Shiro, he'll be able to tell who I am."

Keith was pretty much talking out of his ass. He had no clue if Shiro would truly be able to recognize him, but all he could do was hope that he would.

"Okay," a guard relented, "But McClain stays back with us."

"No," Keith said, "I need him with me. For, uh, moral support."

Lance snorted quietly from beside him. Keith discreetly elbowed him in the side.

The guards finally gave in, probably because they didn't want to tell Keith no if he did actually turn out being the lost prince.

That was how Keith and Lance found themselves outside of the King and Queen's chambers, standing on their balcony that overlooked all of the kingdom.

Keith was pacing from one side to the other, pulling nervously at his short hair. "I mean, it's been eighteen years. He was...what? Eight when he last saw me? He has every right to not notice me or believe me, and _then_ what will I do? It's not like I could even try convincing him, because Mother never _told_ me anything..."

"Keith, babe," Lance interrupted, and when Keith turned around to face him, he grasped onto both of his shoulders with his hands. "It's going to be okay. Whatever happens, I'm here for you."

Keith took a moment to process the words before nodding with a small, appreciative smile.

Only a few more minutes passed by before King Shiro was all but barging out of his door, and Keith straightened, facing him. He could see Queen Allura standing behind him, and she was beautiful, but Keith's total focus was on the King.

He was staring right back at Keith with wide eyes, looking as if he was in complete disbelief.

"I—" Keith started, but King Shiro shook his head.

Anxiety filled Keith again. The King was going to tell him that he wasn't really the prince and make him leave...

"I'd recognize you anywhere," King Shiro said, and then smiled. "Welcome home, brother."

Keith's eyes widened in surprise and he choked out a laugh, smiling widely.

Shiro laughed too and then he was pulling Keith into a warm hug. Keith melted into the embrace, squeezing his eyes closed as he took in the feeling of an actual family member, who genuinely cared about him, hugging him.

Keith broke the hug and Shiro's eyes traveled behind him, looking at Lance who smiled nervously.

"And who's this?" He asked.

"Uh," Keith said, unable to stop smiling, "This is my boyfriend, Lance."

Shiro held out his hand to Lance and Lance went to take it into his own, but then it seemed like Shiro changed his mind halfway there and instead pulled Lance into a hug.

Keith could see the surprise on Lance's face, but then he smiled and hugged Shiro back.

"Thank you for bringing my brother back to me," Shiro told him genuinely.

Lance laughed, scratching awkwardly at his neck. "Well, he pretty much did that on his own. He can be very...let's say _determined_ once he sets his mind to something."

There was a laugh from behind Keith and he turned around to see Queen Allura hiding a chuckle behind her hand.

"That _does_ sound familiar," she teased, and Shiro laughed, too.

" _Hey_ ," He scolded her playfully. He then reverted his attention back to Keith and Lance. "Come on inside, you two. I think it's safe to say we have some catching up to do."

Shiro walked over to Allura and wrapped an arm around her waist before leading her inside. Keith looked over at Lance and smiled brightly when he locked their hands together.

"Thank you," he told him, and Lance raised an eyebrow at him.

"Yeah?" He asked. "For what?"

Keith shrugged. "For everything. There's no way I would've ever gotten to here if it wasn't for you."

"Well, in that case," Lance said, and pressed a quick kiss to Keith's mouth, "Thank you to you, too."

Keith laughed and then he was pulling Lance inside of the castle to meet up with Shiro and Allura — with his _family_.

**Author's Note:**

> and then the next day they visit lance's family together :')
> 
> i realized as i was reading through this that i forgot about red in certain places so like...just assume that she is always there, watching over her son, keith.
> 
> pleaseee let me know what you thought of it, either in the comments or on my tumblr, iconicbane! it would mean so much to me.
> 
> thank you for reading <3
> 
> (here's the tumblr post if you wanna check it out: http://iconicbane.tumblr.com/post/163022911566/title-and-at-last-i-see-the-light-pairing)


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